


The Wedding Challenge

by alayneni



Series: Challenge Verse [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-09-16 17:11:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 81,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9281684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alayneni/pseuds/alayneni
Summary: Oliver has proposed to Felicity and it's time to plan the wedding. Can Felicity get the wedding she wants or will the pressure of what society expects from a Queen wedding win out over her expectations. Sequel to The Challenge. Felicity's PoV.





	1. December - The Proposal

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Arrow. I suggest you read The Challenge first since this story references quite a few of the events that occurred in The Challenge.

It was the last night of Hanukkah. Felicity finished saying her prayers and lit the last candle before settling on the couch with Oliver to reflect. He made sure that he was home on time every night to light a candle with her. Sometimes she would have to pinch herself because she could not believe this was her life; that the sexy wonderful man who she cuddled up next to every night was hers. She wondered how the rebellious Goth girl ended up with the playboy billionaire. A year ago Felicity did not know what she was going to do with her life, now she had a path clearly lit in front of her.

She had a job she loved, a man she loved and a large extended family that she loved. She wouldn't say everything was absolutely perfect but it was perfect enough for her. She had been living in Starling City for eight months and had become a celebrity because of her relationship with Oliver. The news called them the Star Couple. Everyday her outfits were debated. She thanked the google gods that she had a relatively decent sense of style. Magazines and talk shows were always asking for interviews. Felicity declined all of them. She hated to think what might pop out of her mouth. Instead she sent Oliver to handle them. With his natural charm he had everyone eating out of the palm of his hands.

Last year at Hanukkah, Oliver had given her the beautiful charm bracelet that she never took off. She had only gotten him a gym membership in return. She needed to up her game this year and she thought she had the perfect gift for him this time. She hired William Tockman, the famous watch maker, to hand craft a watch for Oliver. It would be an old fashioned watch. Oliver wasn't good with technology and she knew if the watch had Palmer written anywhere on it, he wouldn't like it. She also knew since he was very tactile himself, Oliver would appreciate the workmanship of the watch above all else. The band was going to be made out of platinum and she had arrows engraved on each metal link. The back of the watch carried the inscription:

_To my Arrow with Love_

This was the second time she was celebrating Hanukkah without her mother and she still felt the pain of her absence. She wondered if it would ever go away. Oliver seemed to know what she was thinking and pulled her a little bit closer to him. She let the warmth of his embrace comfort her. Felicity closed her eyes and inhaled Oliver's scent. All the sadness was chased away and soon the sound of his heartbeat lulled her to sleep.

The loud ringing of Oliver's phone caused both of them to rolled off of him and he picked up his phone from the table.

"Tommy," he said.

"Yes, I realise we are late," he said glancing at the clock on the stereo.

"Crap," Felicity said. It felt so peaceful being in Oliver's arms. She forgot that Thea was throwing a Hanukkah party for her at the Mansion that night. The clock said they were already half an hour late. Everyone was probably waiting and if Tommy was there he probably had them all convinced that they were late because they were sexing each other up. He liked to accuse them of that all the time. He even had Thea convinced that they were worse than rabbits.

"We'll be there in half an hour," Oliver said into the phone.

Felicity rushed upstairs to the bathroom, and got dressed in record time.

* * *

Thea really knew how to celebrate. That was probably the best Hanukkah celebration Felicity had ever experienced but she had been counting down the hours until she could get home and exchange gifts with Oliver. If she hadn't fallen asleep, he would already have his watch. When the last guest left, Felicity quickly said goodbye to everyone before pulling Oliver out to the car and ordering him to floor it back to their apartment. She may have also called the elevator in their building slower than a snail as they waited for it to come down to them on the ground floor.

"Someone's a bit impatient?" Oliver commented suspiciously as she dragged him into their loft.

"I'm ready to give you your gift," Felicity explained happily.

Oliver gave her a heated look.

Felicity slapped his chest playfully, "Not that type of gift but that can happen afterwards."

"So what did you get me?" he asked with a contented smile.

"This," she said pulling out the box she had hidden under the sofa and shoving it into his hands, "It's much better than that gym membership I got you last year."

"Hey, I liked that. If it weren't for the gym membership, my body wouldn't be in its current condition and we wouldn't have made some of the friends we currently have," Oliver pointed out holding the box.

"Just open it," Felicity said bouncing on her feet anxiously.

Oliver reached into his pocket and pulled out a very small box, "Let's open our gifts together," he suggested.

Felicity smiled, "Ok."

She reached for the small box and opened it at the same time he opened his. She found a miniature TARDIS to add to her charm bracelet. She squealed with delight!

"It's perfect Oliver but I thought you wanted the charm to represent things in our relationship. Dr. Who is sort of my obsession," she asked him as he put the watch on his wrist.

"It does. It represents us getting past our first trial as a couple. It represents us soldering on and becoming even stronger together. It represents us cementing our relationship into a strong unbreakable bond, it's with that thought in mind that I want to ask you something Felicity," Oliver said getting down on one knee in front of her.

He held up his hand in front of her and Felicity saw the diamond in the ring sparkle. "Felicity, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?"

"Yes," Felicity said getting down on her knees quickly to hug him as he was trying to stand. She practically bowled him over in the process.

"Sorry," she said as they hit the floor together.

He laughed, "At least let me put the ring on your finger before we start the after proposal activities."

"Oh right," she said holding out her left hand for him.

She watched intently as he slid the ring up her finger. It was an emerald cut diamond placed on a platinum band. On either side of the band two arrow heads pointed towards the diamond. Arrows were definitely their thing.

"Wait," Felicity said, "Is this why everyone was asking me where it was at the party? Did everyone know you were proposing tonight?"

Oliver looked at her sheepishly, "I may have let it slip to Thea and Tommy who I think told Roy, Laurel and Sara who told, well everyone else at the party."

"I love you Oliver," she said.

"I love you too Felicity but let's take these activities upstairs. I'm getting too old for the floor," he joked.

Felicity playfully swatted at his chest as he lifted her easily off the ground.

"Ok Mr. Queen take me upstairs and have your way with me!" Felicity said dramatically.

Oliver smirked, "Oh I intend to Mrs. Queen."


	2. January

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. Please note the Jan-2, Jan-3 are screen breaks and don't represent that day of the month.

A slightly hungover Felicity bounced William on her lap in Bob's office while Oliver snoozed next to her on the couch. It was not fair that he got to sleep and recover from that god awful party Tommy threw the night before. Just because they were ringing in the New Year didn't mean they had to drink themselves to death. It was especially worse since both boys knew they had to get on a jet the next day and fly to Las Vegas to celebrate William's first birthday.

Their birthday gift to William was the creation of a trust fund. Every year on his birthday they would deposit money into it for him. Others were invited to contribute if they wanted. Samantha loved the idea. They were giving him a gift that would provide for him years into the future. Of course they knew when William got to the toy stage, he wouldn't understand the benefit of the fund so for Christmas he would get the hottest toy on the market as long as Samantha approved.

It was good to see Bob again. He looked fully recovered from his heart attack. His grandson had picked up his tasks in the kitchen and his daughter ran the bar. Bob still wanted to be involved so they let him sit at the bar and greet customers when they came in. He complained bitterly about the diet his doctors had forced upon him. He had to give up all his favourite foods. As a result the little paunch he used to have, had disappeared. At dusk, he would also take a stroll around the block with his daughter for exercise.

Alice was still working at the bar but her belly was getting big. She was due in April and according to her doctors she was expecting a baby boy. Felicity laughed at Oliver when he said he swore Alice was taller. She had to point out to him that Alice was now wearing flats instead of the 4+inch heels she used to walk around the bar in. The face he made when he realised he had overlooked the obvious was adorable and she just had to kiss him senseless.

After she had sufficiently recovered from her hangover and Oliver woke up, Felicity found herself gravitating towards the jukebox. She flipped through the selections not sure what she was feeling for yet. She knew every song on there by heart already.

"Let's dance to this one," Oliver said from behind her, his hand pointing to the song he wanted.

" _Wonderful World_ by Sam Cooke? That's an old song. How do you even know it?" Felicity said turning her head to look up at him.

"It's on your play list. I like to think that that song applies to me," he said as he put the money in the box and pressed play.

"Does it?" she questioned wrapping her arms around his neck as the music started to play. They swayed slowly.

"Don't know much about computers but I do know that I love you," Oliver sang to her.

She giggled. "How cheesy Mr. Queen!"

"Maybe, but it is true," he said meaning every word.

She tilted her head up and kissed him deeply. She was allowed to kiss him for about two seconds before there was a round of complaints from their friends followed by Tommy insisting they get a room.

**Jan-2**

The first working day of the year saw the official press release from QC informing that Oliver Queen, heir to the company, and Felicity Smoak were officially engaged. Moira made them take an official picture together that was included with the release. The picture was very prim and proper. They were both seated on Victorian chairs side by side but the chairs were angled slightly towards each other. Oliver had been placed on her left side so that when he held her left hand the ring was on prominent had spent hours in the photo shoot trying to get the perfect pose for the picture. After each take Moira would give them directions about what she wanted changed for the next take. By the end of the night, Felicity's cheek muscles hurt from all the fake smiling she had to do. When she finally saw the official photo, she much preferred the one she had on her phone of the two of them taking a selfie together by the pond in the park.

The moment that the news was released, they became the top trending topic of the day. Every time she turned on the TV, all she heard about was the Olicity engagement. That night, the gossip stations had enlarged the official picture to examine the ring. Expert jewelers were called in to determine a ball park price for the ring. Felicity didn't want to know the price. It wasn't important to her. It could be worth one million or one dollar. Oliver invested the time in commissioning a ring for her. It was from his heart, not his pocket, and that was all that mattered to her.

The requests for interviews quadrupled. Felicity still declined all. Oliver agreed to let the reporters that the Queen's had a working relationship with interview him. She watched live from their Loft and couldn't help but swoon as Oliver described his relationship with her. She didn't know what she had done in her life to deserve his love but she was grateful and she would make sure she worked to keep it.

**Jan-3**

Her work life at QC was great. She expected some sort of backlash now that she was engaged but there wasn't any. The people she worked with knew, she earned her job. She proved it every day when she solved problems that they couldn't. There was a rumour going around that she was going to be promoted from the Head of Cyber-Security to Chief Technical Officer since QC was broadening their scope and entering the technology field. That rumour so happened to be true.

The partnership with Palmer Technologies was very fruitful. The standard of living in the Glades was slowly increasing due to the green technologies they were implementing in the pilot neighbourhoods. Not only did it reflect well on Queen Consolidated but the approval rating for Mayor Moira Queen was the highest for any Mayor in the country.

Felicity and Walter made the decision to continue to invest heavily in the technology sector and entered other joint partnerships with Star Labs, Kord Industries and Wayne Enterprises. The ventures were going well and the shareholders were pleased with the outcomes of each project. Walter decided it was time for QC to take the next step and start their own research department so they wouldn't have to keep partnering with decided the best way to do that was to buy a small firm and convert it into QC Applied Sciences Division. That was how QC set their sights on UNIDAC.

UNIDAC was a small company that had been started by the Markov family two decades before. The company's main research facility was based in Central City but they had branches in all the major cities. The management of UNIDAC wanted to grow the company further and to do that they required investors. Walter offered them a buyout deal that they couldn't refuse.

The paperwork for the acquisition was going to be completed by the end of the month. After that, it was Felicity's baby to do with as she pleased. She had already decided that they would absorb all of staff of UNIDAC. She was not going to fire anyone especially when jobs were so hard to come by these days. She had been playing around with a new organisation structure for the division. She would be the overall head but then she would have four managers below her. Dr. Curtis Holt, would be in charge of design innovation projects, Dr. Caitlin Snow, bio-medical projects, Dr. Ronnie Raymond, would be in charge of engineering projects and Brie Larvan would take over as the head of the Cyber-Security department. Brie would also need to move to Starling City because Felicity was not letting her favourite department move so far away from. Felicity still had a lot of work to do on her plan but she was hoping she would be ready by February 1st.

**Jan-4**

Two weeks after the official announcement that they were engaged, Moira set up a series of interviews with the best wedding planners on the west coast. Felicity was supposed to do it but she had been very busy finalising the documents for the merger. The interviews would take place at Queen Mansion and both Moira and Thea, who came home for the weekend specifically for the interviews, would be sitting in on them. Oliver had begged out of attending, which Felicity didn't really mind. He and Tommy could spend the day working on ideas for a little pet project they wanted to run together.

She arrived at the Mansion at the specified time and discovered that the first planner had already arrived and was talking with Moira in the foyer.

"Felicity this is Judy. She's the best wedding planner in Starling City," Moira said introducing her to the first candidate.

"Hello Felicity, I'm looking forward to working with you to make your wedding everything you dreamed it would be," Judy said excitedly.

Felicity smiled pleasantly at her. Moira guided them to the drawing room where a table with four chairs had already been set up. Thea was seated excitedly on one the chairs with a notebook. Felicity hadn't even thought about bringing anything to take notes with. She thought she would just hear what everyone had to say and then decide who she would choose.

Judy had grand suggestions and an aim for an April wedding with nearly 500 guests. Everything was big and bold and boasted of the wealth of the Queens. Nothing she saw sat right with her.

"Can I think about this?" Felicity asked hesitantly.

"Yes but not too long. April is right around the corner," Judy said in an upbeat voice.

Felicity nodded. When the woman left Moira held her hand, "Dear, it's ok if you didn't like her suggestions. We have 6 more planners to see today."

By the end of the day Felicity was fed up of hearing promises of giving her the wedding of her dreams when none of them had asked her about her dreams. As a little girl she believed in prince charming till her father that love wasn't important. She became very rebellious. Weddings were never thought about. Now that she was getting married she really needed to sit and reflect on what she wanted. What marrying Oliver meant to her and how she was going to combine her Jewish faith into the ceremony? Spring and summer of this year were out. She would not be ready for then. The idea of a winter wedding strangely appealed to her.

"April is right around the corner," Moira pointed out, echoing the words from Judy earlier in the day, "I would expect you to choose a planner soon."

Thea was flipping through the detailed notes she took during the day pretending not to listen to them. She didn't think the girl missed a single suggestion that any of the planners made.

Felicity pursed her lips, "I think I want to get married in December," she told her honestly. Thea's hand came to an abrupt stop in her notebook.

"So far way?" Moira asked stunned, "I was under the impression Oliver was anxious for it to be soon."

Felicity wasn't aware of that. They hadn't talked about a date yet. Work had been very hectic. "I'll talk to Oliver tonight about a date."

"Keep in mind that we need to reserve the hotel soon. The Plaza Hotel books up quickly but I'm confident we should be able to get it for April," Moira stated with a pleasant smile. She was still pushing for the April wedding.

Felicity cocked her head to the side studying Moira, "We can't host the wedding here?"

"While the mansion is big, I don't think we can accommodate all of the required guests," she stated.

Felicity's eyes widened, how many people did Moira want to invite? Felicity was beginning to feel very uncomfortable about the planning process. Not wanting to continue the conversation any further, Felicity politely excused herself. She had just exited through the front door to get some fresh air when Oliver and Tommy pulled up.

"You look stressed," Tommy commented immediately jumping over the closed car door of Oliver's BMW convertible. He liked to think he was as athletic as Oliver. He was lucky his foot didn't get stuck or he would have fallen flat on his face. She knew it would be mean, but she definitely would have laughed at him and probably taken a picture for everyone to see.

"Six hours with Moira,Thea and wedding planners," Felicity said as Oliver got out of the car the way normal people did and walked around to her. He threw the car keys to the butler by the door.

"Hey," Oliver said pulling her close, "Don't let my mother stress you out. She's quite good at getting people to do what she wants them to do."

"I know," Felicity admitted. She'd been there long enough to see that woman in action. She was sure that if Moira wanted, she could convince the President to let her stay in the White House.

"I'm happy with whatever you want. If you want to elope right now, we can get on the jet and have Elvis marry us in Vegas," he offered.

Felicity's wrinkled her forehead in disgust."As a child I promised myself I would never do that. No we are having a proper wedding, I just need to figure out what that means for us," she said.

"Anything you want love," Oliver said kissing her tenderly.

A loud throat being cleared broke their little moment.

"Dinner is served and I'm hungry," Tommy said unapologetic that he interrupted them.

Felicity rolled her eyes, "Is he ever not hungry?"

Oliver shrugged, "Its Tommy."

**Jan-5**

Dinner felt very tense for Felicity. Tommy was his usual boisterous self and Thea had fun relating all the details the wedding planners suggested for the wedding. Felicity chose to remain silent and poke at her food. Several times during dinner, Oliver shot her a concerned look but she brushed him off. For the first time since he had asked her to marry him the prospect of the actual wedding itself felt like a milestone around her neck.

They were nearing the end of dinner when her phone rang. Usually she would check it and call the person back later but the caller ID showed a Vegas area code. She didn't recognise the number but she decided to excuse herself from dinner and answer the phone.

"Felicity!" the person on the other end of the phone screamed causing her to hold the phone away from her ear.

She knew right away who it was, Susie Caldero. Susie was a very close friend of her mother's, well close when she was in Vegas. She had the habit of finding her husband in Vegas, moving away for a few years before divorcing and then moving back to look for fresh meat. They hadn't seen her in the last three years and Felicity suspected that Susie did not know that Donna had died.

Felicity chose to sit in Oliver's old bedroom to have this conversation. Susie started telling her about the last three years of her life and what she had gotten in her most recent divorce. It was always best to let Susie talk first. As a child she remembered doing homework while her mother and Susie talked for hours upon end. Susie had already been through one husband when Donna first met her at the casino. They bonded quickly over scumbag exes and Susie said she was never marrying poor again. Her next husbands were all rich.

After 10 minutes of Susie talking about Paris in the summer her suspicions were confirmed.

"Felicity, I've been trying to call Donna but I'm not getting through. Did she change her number?" the woman asked curiously.

"Susie, Mom died over a year ago," Felicity said gently. This wasn't the first time she had to tell an old family friend that her mother had passed. It still caused that little sad twinge in the pit of her stomach.

"What!" Susie screeched into the phone, "Felicity, you shouldn't play jokes on an old woman. You could give me a heart attack. Your mother is younger than me and full of life so you don't need to punish me for being so bad at keeping in contact with you guys by telling me she's dead."

"September 14th at 4:12pm," Felicity said sadly, "it was cancer." Even after a year, the tears still prickled at the corner of her eyes.

"I'm coming out to Boston," she said.

"I'm not in Boston anymore," Felicity told her.

"You're not?" she replied confused."Are you here in Vegas?"

"I was but now I'm in Starling City," Felicity explained to her.

"Starling City?" she repeated as if it were a foreign country. Never mind, it was Susie who had been in a foreign country for the last three years.

Felicity proceeded to tell her all about her life, ending with her engagement to Oliver Queen. The squealing started again. Susie had been through six weddings so she had plenty of advice, she also had something no one else could give her, what her mother would have wanted for her. It didn't surprise her at all that Susie and Donna had discussed Felicity's love life at great lengths inclusive of the day she would eventually get married.

The door to the bedroom opened and Oliver's head popped in. He looked very concerned. She patted the spot next to her. Oliver sat down as instructed and she signaled for him to lean back against the headboard. She crawled into his lap and snuggled up against him as she continued her wrapped his hands around her and rested his chin on top her head. Eventually, after she promised to invite Susie to the wedding, the conversation came to an end.

"You ok?" Oliver asked softly.

"I am now," Felicity said turning her head so that she could bury her face into the crook of his neck. The scent of his cologne mixed with his natural scent always calmed her.

"You barely ate anything. Raisa put up a doggy bag for you but if you want, we can get some Big Belly Burger for you on the way home," he offered.

"Mmmh, that sounds like a delicious plan but can we just lay here like this a little bit longer," she asked.

"We can lie here as long as you want love. I'll never complain about holding you," he replied.

A loud grumble erupted from her stomach, "No but apparently my stomach will complain." She reluctantly pulled away from Oliver. "Big Belly Burger here we come!"

**Jan – 6**

It seemed like they were inundated with many celebratory events in such a short time span. There was William's birthday, followed by Alice's one year anniversary party at the bar, and now Thea's birthday. Tommy's birthday was right around the corner as well and he wouldn't shut up about his birthday plans.

Thea insisted Oliver had to make up for missing her birthday last year and giving her a gift that he had originally tried to give to their mother for Christmas. He decided to rent a club near her university for the night and allow her to invite all of her college friends to the party. Thea was ecstatic. She tried to get him to have a full bar included on the tab but Oliver insisted that Thea was underage so the party would remain a dry party even if some of Thea's friends could drink.

Felicity discovered that Roy was a bit antsy about an Alex that kept coming around. The boy was a senior at Thea's university and he did not like him. Alex was studying political science and was quite the charmer while Roy was still a street rat from the Glades who had just passed his GED exam, (thanks to many late night tutorial sessions from Felicity) and was still deciding what course he wanted to take at the local community was smart and ambitious while Roy was sarcastic and rude. Alex was just the type of boyfriend Moira would want for Thea. Felicity understood why Roy was feeling so insecure about his relationship with Thea. He was scared of being replaced. Felicity often felt like that when she was standing next to a tall leggy brunette who was trying to make an impression on Oliver. That little annoying part of her brain always reminded her what Oliver's type was and physically, she didn't meet the bar.

Not long into the party, Felicity retired to the VIP lounge with Oliver. Tommy was already there with Laurel and a bottle of wine that they had snuck into the club.

"Hey!" Oliver complained. "I'm trying to set an example for Thea here."

"And what example would that be?" Tommy asked sipping on the wine.

"That you don't need alcohol to have a good time," Oliver fired back.

"Hmmm, good luck with that bro," Tommy said before turning to Felicity, "want some?"

She laughed, "Sorry Tommy. I'm going to have to decline." She was 100% supportive of Oliver's decision.

Tommy pouted, "Fine then. Support your fiancé. It's not like I mean anything."

Felicity sat by Laurel and they were soon engaged in conversation while Tommy and Oliver looked out over the party from the railings. Her attention diverted away from Laurel, when her peripheral vision caught Oliver moving swiftly from the railing to the stairs.

Felicity sprang to her feet immediately, "Tommy, what's wrong?" she said joining their friend at the eyes were glued to Oliver as he made his way through the party.

"We think the kid with the blue hoody is selling drugs. Oliver is going to escort him out," Tommy said.

"Shouldn't he take security with him?" Felicity asked concerned.

"Oliver is security!" Tommy replied. Felicity pursed her lips. She didn't care how many martial arts and weapons classes he was taking. He should never enter any situation without backup.

She wished Diggle was there but she told him he could stay home with Lyla since they had hired private security for the night. She watched as Oliver confronted the man and asked him to leave. The man ignored Oliver insisted that he leave, the guy pulled a knife and swung it at Oliver. Felicity felt like her heart jumped right out of her chest and on to the dance floor below her. Oliver's training kicked in and he immediately incapacitated the guy. He took him to the front of the club where most of the bouncers were stationed. Felicity turned to the stairs.

"Felicity wait you probably shouldn't interfere," Tommy said grabbing on to her wrist to stop her.

"Tommy I am not leaving him to handle this alone," Felicity stated angrily. She pulled away from him and walked down the stairs as quickly as her six inch heels would allow. She pushed her way angrily through the club until she found him outside with a few bouncers.

"What the hell were you thinking? Were you even thinking?" Felicity asked him.

"I'm fine," he said in a nonchalant tone.

"I know that. I watched the whole thing unfold from upstairs," Felicity replied crossly.

"I called Captain Lance. He should be here soon. I need to wait to give him my statement," he explained to her.

"Fine, I'll see you upstairs when you're done," Felicity said turning on her heel and heading back inside. On the way inside she got a look at a long line of students waiting to get inside the club. Exactly how many people did Thea invite to her birthday party?

**Jan-7**

The silence in the car after the party was deafening.

"Well at least I'm not the only one not getting laid tonight," Thea said sarcastically. They were dropping her to her dorm before heading back to their hotel room they rented for the night so they wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Starling City. Apparently, Thea and Roy had gotten into a big fight over Alex. Roy left in a huff and Felicity may be tracking the GPS on his phone to ensure that he gets back to Star City safely.

"That's probably a good thing for you Thea. You should be focusing on your studies," Oliver said in that big brother tone.

"I think you have your own problems to focus on," Thea fired back.

They descended into silence again until they dropped Thea off. Once they were back on the road again, Oliver decided to tackle the issue head on.

"Felicity, I'm not apologising for doing the right thing," he said tersely.

She looked over at him. He had both his hands on the steering wheel and was focused straight ahead. The tension in his shoulders was an indication that he was not happy.

"Oliver I'm not angry because I think it wasn't the right thing to do. You're 100% correct that the drug dealer needed to be removed from the party. I'm angry because you tried to do it by yourself. I don't want to be mourning you before I'm married to you."

"Felicity, Diggle taught us how to defend against knives. I've even moved on to more advanced weapons. I was never in any danger," he pointed out to her.

"I know you're currently training with all sorts of swords, bows and arrows and escrima sticks but you don't know how trained that man could have been. Suppose he was a professional killer and he got to you. No one was there to help you. You fought that man and the crowd around you barely noticed. Suppose he was a psycho and he decided to grab onto one of those college kids. Are you also trained in hostage negotiations?" she asked.

"Felicity," he said frustrated. Oliver hated it when she poked holes in his plans but she needed to do it to ensure that he was always safe. She didn't want him to develop the habit of running head first into dangerous situations by himself.

"Oliver, at least promise me that next time, you'll take security with you?" she pleaded.

"Next time?" he questioned.

Felicity snorted, "I'm not under any delusion that it won't happen again."

"Great that we had this talk then. Am I still in the dog house?" he asked.

"If you're asking if you're getting laid tonight, if you massage my back and feet, you just might."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. February will be up tomorrow.


	3. February

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the story thus far and those that left kudos.

Felicity sat on the edge of their bed while she waited for Oliver to change into his suit for the night. It was February 1st or as Tommy Merlyn declared it, the best day of the year because it was his birthday. Tommy's plans for the night were outrageous and Felicity doubted she would last past 10:00pm. She had a very long day that started when she woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to get into the office extra early.

The official press release for the conclusion of the UNIDAC merger was posted on the website that morning. She fielded a tone of calls from news agencies about what the acquisition of UNIDAC meant for the future of the company. So far the stock price had remained pretty even as investors waited to see how the integration progressed. The Board had her and Walter under a microscope. The company had a lot riding on this investment and Felicity was determined to make sure that the faith the Queens had placed in her was worth it.

Oliver walked out of the closet dressed in a suit with no tie. The top of his shirt was unbuttoned giving a good view of his neck. It also made Felicity's heart rate pick up a notch. It wasn't fair that Oliver looked gorgeous in whatever he wore. She was sure he could wear a sack and still look like an Adonis.

"Like what you see?" he asked with a cocky smirk when he caught her staring.

She felt her face get warm and she knew she was blushing like a teenage girl. Despite being together for over a year, he still made her feel like a giddy teenage girl.

"We could go fashionably late," Oliver suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"No," Felicity said shaking her head. "If we aim to go late, we won't ever leave this bed."

"I don't have a problem with that," Oliver replied.

"Neither do I but we would have to hear Tommy whine for the rest of our lives about missing his birthday because we chose to stay home and have sex," she said before adding, "And knowing Tommy he will say it at the most awkward places to embarrass us like in the middle of an airport terminal or something."

Oliver pouted, "You're going to make me wait to get you out of that dress."

Felicity stood up and did a little twirl, the base of her red dress fluttering around her knees, "I'm afraid so Mr. Queen."

Felicity's phone started ringing and the caller ID revealed one Tommy Merlyn. Felicity answered on speaker phone.

"Smoak keep those legs of yours closed and focus on getting to the restaurant!" Tommy said crudely.

Felicity wrinkled her nose in disgust while Oliver frowned.

"Tommy my fiancée's legs are none of your concern and we were just about to leave," Oliver said.

"Hmmm, I'll take that with two grains of salt! There's a limo waiting for you guys downstairs," Tommy said.

"You got us a limo?" Felicity asked her eyes widening as she looked at Oliver in disbelief. He just shook his head at his friend's antics.

"I had to ensure my best friend made it. The two of you have a history of missing events," Tommy reminded them.

"We're not that bad," Felicity responded.

"The Gala at the country club last year, The Smith's party, Merlyn Global's product launch, the…"

"Ok Tommy enough. We get the idea. We're walking out the door now," Felicity said hanging up on him.

**Feb-2**

The next day a tired and slightly sleep deprived Felicity, was busy preparing for a conference call with the research lab in Central City when Moira entered her office. The Queen matriarch was always so well put together. Her hair was perfectly coiffed, not a strand out of place, quite in contrast to her simple pony tail she wore to work every day. The suit the older woman wore was perfectly pressed and tailored. It complimented all of her best features. Moira had an air of power around her that demanded immediate respect. Maybe that was why the people of Starling City had no problem voting for her.

"Felicity darling," she said with a smile that meant she wanted something.

"Moira," Felicity smiled tightly giving her future mother-in-law her full attention. The older blonde took a seat opposite Felicity.

"Have you given any thought about choosing a wedding planner?" she asked getting straight to the point of her visit.

"I have," Felicity lied. In truth, she had shoved the wedding to the back of her mind since she had dismissed the idea of an April wedding.

"Who have you decided to go with?" Moira asked. Felicity should have expected that question. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Moira would want an answer.

"I'm still deciding," Felicity said carefully. That was at least partially true.

"Dear I understand that you want a later wedding but that doesn't mean that you can put off hiring the planner," she advised her.

"I know. I'll make a decision soon. I promise. Check me at the end of the month. I'll definitely have a name for you then," Felicity said in a fake cheerful tone.

Moira eyed her carefully and Felicity often felt that the Queen matriarch had the ability to look at her soul with that gaze. She wondered if the little white lie she told earlier added another tarnish to it. Moira eventually looked away and stood, "I look forward to your choice Felicity."

Felicity gulped. She didn't look forward to the choice at all.

**Feb-3**

Two nights later, after a quick trip out to Thea's University, Felicity settled in front of the fireplace with the notes that Thea took during their meeting with the wedding planners. Her future sister-in-law gladly handed over the notepad with her personal suggestion for who Felicity should use. Thea also tried to coyly bring up Roy but Felicity was not falling into that trap. That was Thea's mess to sort out. She thanked her for the recommendation and then tossed the notepad in the back of the car and headed home.

As Felicity flipped through the notepad she realised the younger girl had filled three quarters of the pad with notes. If only she studied with the same diligence. She realised she might need a glass of wine for this task and she opened a nice bottle of red and settled it on the coffee table in front of the sofa. She poured herself a full glass and then toasted to the picture that hung over the fireplace. It was the same picture of her, her mother and Oliver that she had told him she would enlarge and put over the fireplace if they got one. Not for the first time her thoughts turned to what her mother would think of her getting married. She knew if Donna were still alive there would be no need for a wedding planner. Her mother would gladly handle everything herself.

Felicity opened her own notepad and started making a pros and cons list about each wedding planner they had interviewed. She was about a third of the way through Thea's notes when Oliver entered the room and tried to distract her with some kisses but she insisted she had to get this out of the way and choose a planner or his mother might pick one for her. He sat with her and listened to her thoughts about the planners she had reviewed thus far. He offered his own opinions making it quite clear that his priority was to marry her and he didn't care how it happened. She could come before him dressed in a potato sack, with two witnesses and a rabbi and he would marry her on the spot. She kissed him thoroughly for that before returning to the rest of the Thea's notes. Oliver stayed with her turning on the TV to look at _American Ninja Warrior_ on mute, while he let her sort out her thoughts on each planner.

By the time Felicity was finished with her notes, there wasn't a single planner that stood out to her. In fact, most of the planners had more cons than pros. It seemed she would have to pick the planner she disliked the least. She showed her list to Oliver and he frowned.

"If you like none of them then don't choose any of them," he told her.

"But your mom…" Felicity started to say before Oliver cut her off.

"My mom is not the one getting married. This is our wedding. We do it our way," he insisted. He reached for the remote and turned off the TV. He took her list and put it on the coffee table next to Thea's notebook and then corked the wine before returning it to the wine chiller. He returned to the sofa and lifted her up easily into his arms.

Felicity giggled, "What did I do to deserve this treatment?" she asked.

"Can't a man treat his girl the way she deserves to be treated?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Felicity beamed at him, "Careful, I might expect you to carry me around the loft every day."

"Your wish is my command love," he said as he carried her up the stairs to their bedroom.

**Feb-4**

It was 3:00am in the morning when they were notified that the QC Applied Sciences Research Facility in Central City had been robbed. Walter, Felicity and Oliver flew out right away. Drs. Raymond and Snow met them at the airport when they arrived. Felicity was fairly familiar with the city since she came out ever quarter to meet with Dr. Wells and his right hand man, Cisco Ramon, about one of their joint projects. After the meetings were finished, Cisco would take her to all of his favourite places in the city.

When they arrived at the facility there was a huge hole in the side of the building where the robbers had blown through the wall. Staff had not been allowed to enter the premises yet as the whole facility had been declared a crime scene. Felicity wanted to get close to it to study the blast pattern but there was crime scene tape that blocked it off. There was a lone CSI in front of the hole studying the foot prints on the ground.

"Excuse me," Felicity called out to him.

The young boy looked up at her and gave her a hesitant smile, "Hi."

"Can you tell me when we can get inside?" she asked.

"That's the Detective's decision," he said. "I'm just the local CSI."

"Can you share with me what you've discovered so far?" she asked hopefully.

He stood up and walked over to her, "C4 was placed on the wall in a triangular pattern to cause the hole. Based on the foot prints I've observed, it was a crew of five persons. They took everything out through here and then loaded a van they had parked over there," he pointed to a grassy area 50 yards away that was also cornered off with tape.

"Do you have any idea what they took?" she asked.

"My co-workers are processing the site inside. You'll have to ask the Detective," he said.

"Can you point him out to me?" she asked.

"I'm not seeing him out here. He must be inside," the boy said looking around.

She felt Oliver come to stand next to her. His hand snuck around her waist and he pulled her close to him.

"Walter's trying to get us inside. We need to talk to a Detective Joe West," Oliver told her.

"That would be the one," the boy said smiling widely at Felicity.

"Are you old enough to work?" Oliver asked rudely.

Felicity punched him on the arm, 'play nice' she mouthed to him before turning back to the CSI, "I'm sorry about him. He can be a bit grumpy sometimes. What is your name?" she asked politely.

"Barry Allen, Ms. Smoak," he replied.

"You know who I am?" Felicity asked surprised.

"How could I not, you're all over the news. Every day someone's predicting the date of your wedding," Barry informed her.

"Oh, I didn't realise that reached Central City," Felicity said astonished.

The boy laughed and Felicity smiled. "My girlfriend, Iris, is a huge fan of Oliver Queen. He's on her three list."

Felicity frowned, "Kindly tell her that is never happening."

"I know right," Barry responded in agreement.

Oliver cleared his throat, "What's a three list?"

"Something you need never worry about," Felicity said patting his arm. "Oh look Walter's calling us over. Looks like we get to go inside. Barry it was a pleasure to meet you."

**Feb-5**

Five days later, Felicity was still in Central City. As the CTO it was her responsibility to stay and oversee the investigation into the incident. They had been able to identify that equipment, new prototype designs and building plans were stolen. Central City Police Department was taking forever to produce their report but thanks to the friend she had made in Barry, she knew that they had no significant leads on the case. Oliver and Walter returned to Central City and Felicity remained behind to tour the facility and work on increasing the security. In case this wasn't an isolated incident, Felicity had ordered an increase in security at all of their research facilities.

Ronnie and Caitlin, who Felicity became fast friends with, had already finalised their internal report on the theft. Ronnie allowed Felicity to use his office as her base of operations to review the report and conduct her own investigation. The prototype designs that were stolen were already patented and significantly along in the development process so Felicity was sure that they could make it into the market before any modified versions showed up. The equipment that was taken seemed very random. Items as small as tachometers to as large as an industrial centrifuge was taken. She couldn't figure out why someone would need all that equipment. The big stuff could probably fetch a hefty price on the market but the tachometers weren't that expensive and were easy to come by.

A security firm was hired to review the breach and recommend changes to the current system but Felicity decided that she wanted a second opinion from persons that she already knew so she flew Diggle and Lyla out. She walked them through how Barry thought the heist occurred and the more she explained the deeper the frown lines got on both Diggle's and Lyla's faces. She knew something was wrong but she waited till they returned to the privacy of Ronnie's office before she asked them.

"Ok just rip the band aid off and tell me what's wrong," she said.

Lyla looked at Digg before turning back to her, "We can definitely make a few recommendations for improvements but it's going to cost quite a bit," she said.

"Ok, we're willing to pay whatever it takes to secure the facility," she told them.

"Felicity, we don't think that will be enough to secure the facility though," Diggle admitted.

It was Felicity's turn to frown, "Why not?"

"Because this was an inside job. Someone had to help them with this heist. You can add as many security measures as you like but if that person is still employed here, it could happen again. You need to review your staff," Diggle suggested to her.

Felicity exhaled, "How do you recommend I go about doing that?"

"You can start with complete background checks and then flag any staff member that might have cause to rob the company. After that further interviews could be conducted," Lyla stated.

"There are over 100 employees at this facility," Felicity pointed out.

"QC's security department should be able to get the checks done and Lyla and I can personally review the information. We know what we're looking for," Diggle assured her.

"In the meantime, I think Johnny should become your personal bodyguard," Lyla suggested.

"But he's responsible for Oliver!" Felicity protested.

"And Oliver doesn't really need someone of John's qualifications anymore. Rob can guard him. You don't know what the purpose of this attack was or what might happen when you start digging into people's backgrounds. You could become a target and I'm sure Oliver would be pleased to know that you have John covering your back," Lyla explained logically.

"But I might be spending some significant time out here and you need him Lyla. The baby is due in May," Felicity argued.

"Then we should get cracking on those background checks so we can close this up as soon as possible."

**Feb-6**

It was Valentine's night and instead of a romantic dinner with Oliver she was stuck in her hotel room in Central City. She was supposed to be back in time for Valentine's Day but since the revelation about an employee being involved in the heist, Felicity set about the task of meeting every employee herself. Caitlin had written a companywide memo informing staff that Felicity wanted to meet with each person individually to listen to their concerns and suggestions concerning the new organisational structure that was implemented. It had been torture walking through the office and seeing the arrangement of flowers or fancy chocolates that was being delivered to some of her staff.

That was how she discovered that Ronnie and Caitlin were a couple. He had brought her a dozen bouquets of a dozen red roses and Felicity hadn't let up until Caitlin told her who her boyfriend was. Felicity had been very surprised because the two had such a professional relationship in the office she hadn't realised that they were more to each other outside of the office. The two had a very romantic night planned that consisted of dining on the waterfront followed by dessert prepared by the best pastry chef in the city.

Ronnie and Caitlin weren't the only couple in Central City that she had gotten to know. She had helped Barry plan a fantastic date for Iris in exchange for him being her inside man in the police station. The whole investigation made her feel like a private eye. It was very exciting. She loved solving mysteries and now she had her very own to solve.

The room in which she was staying was a large suite with three separate bedrooms so that Diggle could stay in the same hotel room as her. She apologised profusely to Diggle. She even begged him to leave her and go to Lyla but he told her that he was just as dedicated to his job as she was to hers and that his wife would understand. She offered to treat him to a nice meal but he wanted to retire early to his bedroom and skype with his wife. He said he would get something from room service later in the night.

She was hungry so she ordered a chicken noodle soup for dinner since it was supposed to be good for the soul and she really felt like she needed something uplifting. She hadn't heard from Oliver for the day and she suspected that he was angry that they had to cancel their plans for the night though she wasn't exactly sure what the plans were because Oliver had told her it was a surprise. Last year they had been on a very strict budget so their celebrations had revolved around Oliver's cooking.

There was a knock at the door that she assumed was room service. She glanced at Diggle's closed bedroom door and decided there was no harm in answering the main door. She threw on the white robe the hotel provided over the grey Henley T-shirt which she had stolen from Oliver before she left, and her Dr. Who pyjama pants. She opened the door and was met with the site of a Big Belly Bag in her face.

"Delivery for Ms. Smoak," the man holding the bag said. His Big Belly hat was pulled down low to cover his face.

"I didn't order any Big Belly Burger," she said pulling the robe tighter around her. She was beginning to wonder if maybe it had been a better idea to ask Diggle to answer the door.

"I think your fiancé ordered it for you," the man said taking his hat off to reveal it was Oliver.

"Oliver!" she said jumping into his arms. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," he said placing a kiss on her temple.

"I thought you were angry with me," she admitted softly as she clung to him as if he were her lifeline.

"Never! If you thought I was missing Valentine'sDay with you then you were sorely mistaken," he said rubbing her back gently.

"How did you get here? I know your father took the jet to France with your mom," she said.

Oliver shrugged, "I took the train." After a few minutes of hugging each other in the corridor and a few strange looks from passers-by Oliver asked, "Are you going to invite me in?"

Felicity pursed her lips, "I'm not sure I'm allowed to invite delivery boys into my hotel room," she teased.

Oliver shrugged off the Big Belly Burger jacket, "How about your fiancé who braved public transport to get here."

Felicity appeared to think it over, "I think I can make an exception for my fiancé."

"Great!" Lyla said appearing from around the corner where she was hiding, "Because I would really like to surprise my husband as well. I can only put off the skype call for so long."

Lyla walked passed them and towards the bedroom where she knew her husband was located. Just before she reached the door she paused to look back at Felicity, "And Felicity, don't ever answer the door when you have a bodyguard that's supposed to do it for you."

**Feb-7**

She had been back in Starling City for 2 hours when Moira visited her in her office. Felicity knew right away it was about the wedding planner.

"None of them," Felicity answered before Moira could even take a seat opposite her. She had to give the older woman a lot of credit because she didn't even bat an eye when Felicity said she didn't want any of them.

"Do you have other options in mind dear?" Moira asked.

"I do," Felicity smiled.

"Who did you hire?" she asked. She was probably hoping that Felicity had already hired someone.

"Me," Felicity squeaked out.

Moira laughed softly, "Felicity a wedding is not an easy thing to plan especially one of this size. You already have a full time job. Let someone else handle the details."

"I'll make it work. It's my wedding. The only person who can fulfil my dreams is me," Felicity stated fiercely.

Moira eyed her skeptically, "Ok let's make a deal. A wedding is a complicated thing to plan and I don't want you to fall behind and feel stressed. I'm going to layout tent poles for you. By the beginning of each month I would like an update on specific things regarding the wedding so by March 1st I want to know the final date for the wedding."

"Deal," Felicity said hoping this would keep Moira from pestering her consistently about the wedding.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Moira commented as she stood to leave.

Felicity fell back into her chair. "I hope so too," she said when Moira was out of ear shot.

**Feb-8**

Felicity spent the rest of her day googling wedding planning. After such a strong statement she needed to make sure she was on top of things. The first thing to do was set the date. Felicity's mind kept coming back to December every time she thought about her wedding. There were so many special things that happened in December for them. Should she add a wedding to the list? There was already Hanukkah and Christmas. Should they have their anniversary as well? She supposed holding it close to those holidays would always guarantee that they had time to celebrate it. She definitely was not going with anything before December. If Oliver wanted a summer wedding it would have to be summer next year. She was not mentally prepared for anything sooner.

If December was ok, what day in December should they choose? Hanukkah always shifted; sometimes it was early December sometimes it was late. Christmas was always the same date every year. Maybe they should get married on the day Oliver proposed to her? That idea appealed to her as both Hanukkah and Christmas would fall after the wedding this year.

**Feb-9**

Felicity walked slowly into their bedroom to find Oliver on his side of the bed reviewing a bunch of documents. She needed to talk to him about the date for the wedding and now was as good a time as any.

"I want to talk to you," they both said at the same time.

"You go first," both said speaking at the same time again.

They both laughed and Felicity settled herself on her side of the bed. She leaned against the headboard like he was and took his much larger hand in hers.

"You go first and then I'll go," she requested.

"Ok," he said. "Tommy and I finally decided what we want to do together. After watching what happened at the club with Thea, we decided we want to open our own club that will be a safe place for young people to party without drug peddlers. I secured a lease from QC for the old QC steel factory in the Glades. Dad gave it to me at no price. The only expenditure required for this project would be retrofitting the building to make it a club. I can sell some QC shares to…" Oliver explained before Felicity cut him off.

"No!" Felicity said immediately. The world knew Oliver Queen as the heir to billions yet the truth was most of that value was tied to the company. The jets, the cars, most of their expenses all paid for by the company. Yes Oliver had a huge trust fund that he could liquidate but when you start making capital investments in the millions, the trust fund doesn't look so big anymore. He had already purchased the two apartment buildings in Vegas and this loft.

Renovating his old apartment building was costing a lot more than he originally thought. Oliver wanted to add an additional floor on top to create two luxury apartments but in order to accommodate the floor, structural reinforcement of the building was required. The price sky rocketed. He was supposed to be funding this venture from his salary and the rental income from her apartment building but he had run into a problem with the second source of revenue. Most of the income from her apartment building that wasn't used to pay for the building manager or the repairs of a few odds and ends, had to be used to fix a massive leak that occurred on the compound leaving him to dip more and more into his trust fund to complete his renovations. Now he wanted to make another investment when he hadn't even finished paying for the first.

"You will not sell QC shares. That is your father's legacy and our future. Those shares guarantee us control of the company. You cannot sell it and give control to someone else. Since I work so closely with Walter, I happen to know he's recommending an increased dividend payment this year. If the board accepts, by next month, the payments will be made. Half can go to your trust fund to replenish it and the other half you can spend on both your pet projects. You can also devote all of your salary to completing the repairs in Las Vegas. My salary is more than enough to cover our bills and maintain our life style. There is also the option of getting a loan to finish the building in Las Vegas but I would rather we didn't have to deal with any bankers," she said to him.

"Are you sure you don't mind me using all of my salary. I wouldn't be contributing anything to our household," he pointed out squeezing her hand.

Felicity removed her hand from his and cupped his face forcing him to look her in the eyes, "Oliver you contribute a lot. One, you purchased this place as my Christmas gift so we no longer need to pay rent. Two, you do all the cooking and three you save me a ton of money on an escort service since you're the perfect trophy to have on my arm during all those charity galas," she teased rubbing her nose against his affectionately.

Oliver pulled her in for a soft sweet kiss, "I have the perfect fiancée!" he declared when they broke apart.

"If you think so then you'll have no problem saying yes to a December wedding, specifically December 4th to be exact," she said hopefully.

"The day I proposed to you!" he repeated thoughtfully.

"Yes," Felicity confirmed and she felt Oliver tense besides her.

"We have a wedding to pay for too!" he groaned resting his forehead against hers.

"Thankfully all we have to do is plan right now. We'll keep it small so that my salary will cover most of the cost," Felicity told him rubbing her nose against his again.

"Felicity I don't want you to skimp on our wedding. I want you to have everything your heart desires," Oliver reminded her.

"Oh don't worry my heart desires a small wedding, after all I am the wedding planner. And just to state for the record: Once I have you, I have everything my heart desires."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. April will be up tomorrow.


	4. March

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. I'm sorry I didn't update last night. I got home late and was too tired to post.

On March 1st Mayor Queen arrived in her office. She briefly wondered if Oliver's mother didn't have any other projects to work on but this wedding. Surely running Starling City required her to do something.

"The date will be December 4th," Felicity said before Moira had taken three steps into her office.

"I know, Oliver informed me. It's the day he proposed to you. He also asked me not to pressure you about the wedding details but our deal still stands," Moira informed her walking towards her desk and taking the seat opposite her.

"Yes," Felicity confirmed.

"There is something else that I would like to talk to you about. The lawyers have sent you the draft prenup not so?" Moira asked seriously.

Felicity tensed. She had received the document but she hadn't look at it at all. She hadn't even mentioned it to Oliver. Things were going so great she didn't want to spoil it by nit-picking over a prenup agreement. They had a few months before she needed to sign it.

As if sensing her hesitation about the document Moira further explained, "I'm not here to force you to sign it. We had it drawn up quickly when we thought the wedding was in April."

"Ok," Felicity said feeling very uncomfortable to be discussing this topic with her future mother-in-law. "Moira what is the point of your visit?"

"I'm here to give you a little advice, now is the time to protect yourself, your future self and any children that you may have. I know everything is perfect at the moment but it may not always be like that," Moira advised her.

"I can have a cheating clause added," Felicity stated.

"I already asked the lawyer to include it. There were times in my own marriage when I wished for a simple exit strategy. A clause such as the clause that I had the lawyer include ensures that you or Oliver gets their fair share," she stated calmly.

"Shouldn't you be on Oliver's side?" Felicity asked curiously.

"I am but I've seen him ruin countless hearts and I do not wish to see him add the best thing in his life to the list thus I put in some measures that I hope will guide him on the right path. Take your time and decide if you want to add any further clauses, such as job protection, a guarantee for your children in the Queen legacy in case Oliver produces heirs with other women, I am also aware that the two of you have projects outside of QC that you are involved in together be sure to include those in the prenup," Moira advised before standing up and walking away from Felicity. She stopped on the threshold of the door, "Oh and Felicity, your wedding tent pole for next month is the venue for the wedding. Do have a nice day," were her parting words.

Felicity stared at the space Moira had previously occupied. How was she supposed to have a nice day after Moira had just dropped all of that on her?

**Mar-2**

Sara was in town for her father's birthday and Felicity was very much looking forward to the lunch they were scheduled to have together. The two had grown very close since Felicity moved to Starling City and when Sara had told her family that she wanted to travel the world for a bit living off of odd jobs here and there while she decided what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, Felicity was the only person to support her decision. She could see clearly that Sara was stagnating in Starling City and the younger Lance needed to explore that restless drive she had to go out and see the world. It would be difficult, no doubt about that but Sara was tough and Felicity's instincts told her it was the right move for her friend.

As a result of Felicity's unwavering support, she was the only person that Sara had confided in that she was dating a girl named Nyssa two had met in Tibet when Sara was trying to learn more about the Dalai Lama. Sara fell hard and fast for her. Felicity was obviously concerned for Sara had admitted that before Nyssa she had not experimented with any women. She had felt the attraction but ignored it to please her family. Starting a new relationship in a foreign country was risky but three months later and they were still happy together.

Today she would be meeting Nyssa for the first time. She knew that Nyssa was very reserved and preferred to stay indoors or eat quiet dinners at secluded restaurants. That was why they were eating in a small family run Lebanese restaurant that boarded the Glades. Felicity was first to arrive and she secured them seats at the back of the restaurant. She perused the menu while she waited for them and decided to order some kibi as appetisers to start. Sara and Nyssa arrived at the same time as the kibi.

"Felicity I've missed you!" Sara said hugging her.

"I missed you too," Felicity said.

When the girls broke apart, Sara gave her a shy grin. It was the first time she had ever seen Sara be shy or nervous about anything. She linked her hands with a tall exotic woman next to her.

"Felicity, this is Nyssa," she said softly.

Nyssa was gorgeous. There was no denying the beauty in that face. She could see why Sara fell so easily for her.

"It is nice to meet you Felicity," Nyssa said shaking her hand, "My beloved has told me a lot about you."

Felicity grinned, "I hope it was only good things. Oliver thinks that Sara and I only get up to trouble."

"Based on Sara's stories I would have to agree with your fiancé," Nyssa said as they took the remaining seats around the table.

Felicity fake pouted, "I thought you said she was nice."

Sara laughed linking hands with Nyssa above the table, "Nyssa is fantastic!"

Felicity could see the calming effect Nyssa had on Sara all through lunch. The main topic of conversation was where they were travelling to next. Nyssa was one of the heirs to a billion dollar oil company run by her was grooming his children to take over soon and as a result she had meetings across the globe with their various partners. Sara followed her wherever she went. Nyssa's father was aware of their relationship and so far had turned a blind eye to it.

The topic of Sara's family eventually came up. Sara had yet to tell them and she was not telling them during her father's birthday party. That might give him a heart attack. She had thought about telling her sister first but Laurel was still upset that Sara was off being reckless with her life. Nyssa was not pushing her to come out into the open and neither was Felicity. When Sara was ready, it would happen. Felicity did tell her that she was inviting her to bring a plus one to the wedding, the implication being that if she and Nyssa were still together, she hoped to see them attend the wedding together.

A rude text from Oliver inquiring if he needed to bail both her and Sara out of jail reminded Felicity that she did have to get back to work and she hugged both women goodbye with promises to meet up with them the next time they were in town.

**Mar-3**

A former client of Felicity's in Las Vegas called her requesting her help to fix an emergency that they had. They offered an exorbitant amount of money to come out and fix a problem that had developed in their system. It was one of the systems that Felicity had custom built. Knowing the system as intimately as she did, she was able to create a patch to get it working again and she agreed to fly out Friday night and fix it properly over the weekend. From what she had seen when she logged in,her replacement had been making changes to the system over the last few months which led to their security being breached. The casino had lost millions.

She spent all weekend working on the problem, while Digg enjoyed betting with the security guards over which patron was into slots, craps, roulette, blackjack or poker as they walked through the door. By the time she was finished,the system was back to 100%. There were a few adjustments she wanted to make but she could do it when she came back the following weekend for Alice's baby shower. She was handed a nice fat pay check which she happily accepted. She had plans for these funds. She was going to use it to buy into Oliver's real estate venture as a shareholder. It would force him to finally start a company to handle his real estate ventures and they could separate the risk from their own personal capital investment would go a long way towards Oliver getting the building completed on time for a September launch. On her way out of the strip she promised him she would swing by the building and make a random inspection for him.

The flight back was quick and before she knew it, Diggle had escorted her to the door to the loft. She opened the door hoping to find Oliver cooking something delicious in the kitchen but instead she found him in deep conversation with they noticed her,their conversation came to an abrupt halt. She was sure it wasn't about the club. Tommy had insisted that since Oliver managed to secure them a building without any cost that he would pay for the bulk of the renovations as his capital input into the club. Oliver had been hesitant at first but Tommy could be really stubborn when he was ready and Oliver eventually caved. Tommy's offer certainly freed up some of Oliver's financial resources so that it could be directed towards the apartment project.

She watched them suspiciously, "Tommy you better not be trying to get my fiancé in trouble?"

"I'm not. I swear," Tommy said.

Felicity didn't believe him, "Spit it out now Merlyn," she threatened, "Or I tell Digg what really happened to that sandwich."

Diggle turned to face Felicity, "My pulled pork sandwich that disappeared from the fridge at work?" he asked before turning to face Tommy with a glare.

"I was asking Oliver about proposing," Tommy blurted out.

"You want to propose to Laurel?" Felicity asked excitedly rushing to sit down next to Tommy.

"Yes but Oliver set the bar kind of high. For weeks, you girls' talked about his perfect proposal," Tommy admitted.

"And I told you Tommy you just need to follow your heart. When I went to the jeweller I told him about Felicity. How we met, what she meant to me, how much I love her," Oliver said looking deep into Felicity's eyes. "He designed the ring based on that. Your relationship with Laurel is different. I'm sure he'll come up with something totally different."

"I can't do that Ollie because you did that. I need to do something different," Tommy said turning to look at Diggle, "How did you propose?"

"Back of an RV during the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan. Doubt you want to do anything like that but Oliver is right. Your proposal should be unique to you," Diggle advised.

"You need to do something that suits the both of you," Felicity agreed.

"That's what I've been telling him," Oliver said sitting back on the sofa and giving his best friend a look that said he was a lost cause.

"That does not help me," Tommy said exasperated. "Suppose I screw up the ring."

"Then don't propose with a ring," Oliver stated obviously.

"Are you crazy?" Tommy asked his jaw falling open. "You always propose with a ring!"

"No. Many couples choose a ring together. You can propose and then take her ring shopping. Laurel might like that," Felicity said.

"So what do I give her when I propose?" Tommy asked.

"A card with the appointment date to choose the ring?" Felicity suggested shrugging.

"You two are no help at all," Tommy declared standing up.

"Ask Thea," Oliver told him.

"I already did. I'm seeking a third opinion," he responded.

"Third?" Oliver repeated with a questioning tone.

"I asked Sara as well when she was here," Tommy admitted sheepishly.

"It's nice to know that as your best friend I'm so far down the list," Oliver quipped.

"Don't worry, you'll still be my best man!" Tommy assured him.

**Mar-4**

Felicity found herself in the Central City Police Department Headquarters waiting to see Captain Singh and Detective West. They had called her into speak to her personally about the progress on the case. They had finally compiled the official report the day before and thought it urgent that she fly out and meet with them. She asked Ronnie and Caitlin to join her in the meeting and Diggle stayed stationary at the back of the room. She was pleasantly surprised to find that Barry had also been included in the meeting to explain the forensic findings to them. She had to sit through the meeting and pretend that this was the first time she was hearing it. The whole gist of it was that despite collecting evidence, it led them nowhere. They had no idea who broke into her research facility.

Captain Singh indicated that they suspected it was an inside job and they wanted to request all of the employee records for the research facility. Felicity had to practically bite down on her tongue to prevent herself from saying that they came to the same conclusion last month! In the reflection of the glass window in the conference room she could see Diggle's expression behind her. He did not look impressed with their snail's pace.

Felicity wasn't sure if she was allowed to just hand over the files like that. It contained confidential information about her employees so she made a quick call to the company lawyer. She was advised that just to be on the safe side, she should ask them to get a subpoena so that the union didn't object to the release of the information. Detective West promised her that they would get the subpoena by the end of the day and Felicity assured them that she would have the files officially released as soon as the subpoena was received.

After the meeting, she found herself in Barry's office upstairs with Caitlin and Ronnie. There were a few more tests he wanted to run on the samples that he had taken from the crime scene but the equipment in the CCPD lab was not working and he was wondering if Caitlin wouldn't mind he borrowed hers. That led to a discussion about QC assisting in upgrading the forensic facilities of the department. Felicity was sure that they could partner with Star Labs to make a few donations. It would be a great public relations activity for QC since before taking over UNIDAC the company did not have a presence in Central City.

**Mar-5**

Oliver collected her from Central City in the company jet and they flew straight to Las Vegas. Alice's baby shower was the next day. Felicity would have liked to have gone straight to bed but she needed to check up on the system she had been working on the week before. This time both Diggle and Oliver were taking bets about which game each patron was into. After about two hours of running scans she was satisfied that everything was up to mark and that the new person hired to attend to the system was doing a good job. Felicity crashed as soon as she hit the hotel suite.

Alice's baby shower was fun and a great stress reliever. It was nice to forget about work and just have some mindless fun. Alice knew she was having a boy so everything was in the colour blue. The girls had fun watching the men try to put a diaper on the baby doll. The expressions were priceless. Felicity made a mental note to get Oliver to try that activity when they were at Lyla's baby shower. He had chosen to skip the shower and make a site visit to the apartment complex that they were renovating.

After the games were done,Samantha and a few of the other women that were mothers already shared advice about what the first few days were like after the baby was woman's story was slightly different. What some found challenging, others didn't. It all depended on your situation and your outlook. If you had the support of your husband it was easier than if you were a single mom. If the grandparents were in the picture it was a blessing. The discussion about grandparents made Felicity think about her own future children. They would only grow up with one set of grandparents. She supposed that was still better than none, like how she had grown up.

**Mar-6**

After the baby shower had finished Oliver picked her up. He wanted to take her to dinner at the Mexican place where they had their first date. Felicity told him all about the shower and challenged him to do the diaper challenge. He accepted the challenge but warned her that she was going to be sorely disappointed with the outcome. She didn't believe him at all. They reached the restaurant quicker than she expected and she asked him if he had been speeding. He stared blankly at her for a second before getting out of the car and leaving her question unanswered.

The hostess at the door was expecting them and led them to a private table in the back. The waitress arrived as soon as they were seated with margaritas. No menus were presented to them as Oliver had pre-ordered everything.

Felicity arched her eyebrow, "You're so positive that you know my order."

Oliver reached out and held her hand on top of the table, "I would like to think that I do know my future wife," he said charmingly.

"Ok, I'm feeling to start with chicken quesadillas with the jalapeno-mango salsa on the side," she said with a challenging glint in her eye.

A brilliant grin broke out on Oliver's face, "Then it's a good thing that that is exactly what I ordered for our first course!"

She watched him skeptically until a minute later the waitress arrived with exactly what she wanted. She pursed her lips. "Ok, you got one right so far," she admitted to which he grinned smugly at her.

"Mmmm, this food is always so delicious," Felicity appreciated as she bit into the first quesadilla.

"We could serve quesadillas at the wedding," Oliver said absentmindedly as he finished off his first one.

An idea struck Felicity immediately and she grabbed Oliver's hand across the table, "Let's host the wedding here!"

"Here," Oliver said looking around. "Isn't it kind of small?"

"Right now but we could add an air-conditioned tent outside to make it larger. The restaurant can do all the catering. I'm sure if we pay them enough they can expand beyond the usual Mexican menu. This would be the last place anyone would think that we would host our wedding! We can do a mystery theme invitation, where all the guests are just given the location of the airport and then we have a private shuttle bring them all to the restaurant," Felicity said excitedly. This was the first time she had truly felt excited about the actual event.

"I'm not so sure about that," Oliver said honestly taking a sip of his margarita.

The waitress came to clear away their plates and Felicity asked to see the Manager right away. In less than a minute an old gentleman with a heavy Mexican accent arrived at the table. He did not have on a wide brim hat. Felicity always pictured Mexican men sitting around outside a saloon with wide brim hats.

"Hay una problema Senores?" he asked in Spanish instead of English.

Felicity started at him dumbfounded and Oliver took over the conversation. The elder man's face lit up with whatever Oliver told him and then he started speaking a mile a minute in Spanish. His hands started moving and he was pointing at a wall and then beyond the wall out the window. While he was talking their main course arrived and Felicity had to admit that Oliver was spot on with his order. As their waitress was serving their food she could tell that she was listening to the conversation between the Manager and Oliver. Her eyes widened at certain points and Felicity wondered what the hell was going on. When they finally finished talking, they both shook hands. Oliver pulled out his black credit card and the waitress took it from him.

"What just happened?" Felicity asked looking between Oliver and the retreating back of the Manager.

"We're hosting the wedding here. Apparently, when he first started this restaurant he dreamed of a much larger building. He wants to knock out that wall, add another room and then put a large veranda around the building so that in the winter time when its cooler persons can eat he started he didn't have the money to do that so he had to settle for this. He was recently able to secure a loan from the bank to add the second room but not the veranda. The money I just offered him to host the wedding here will pay for his veranda. He assures me he can get all the renovations completed in time for the wedding and his staff won't say a word to anyone about the wedding," Oliver said smiling at her before a slight frown marred his features,"I hope his construction people aren't anything like what I've got on the apartment complex. I had to make them redo an entire apartment."

The waitress returned with his credit card and presented him with two receipts, one for their lunch and the other the down payment for hosting the wedding at the restaurant.

"Great this is one thing down, now I have all the other details to deal with," Felicity said stealing the receipt for the down payment to see how much Oliver had paid. Just because Tommy was covering the renovations for the club, didn't mean Oliver could spend what he was going to put towards the club willy nilly. Though spending on their wedding wasn't really a waste so she couldn't really complain.

"I'll handle the menu, the bar and the DJ," Oliver offered before adding, "I'm sure you can rope Thea in to help with the decorations."

"I think I'm just going to focus on today and bask in the fact that I have the perfect fiancé!" she said learning forward to kiss him over the table.

**Mar-7**

Nearing the end of March, Diggle presented her with the results of the internal background check. 98% of the employees came out were just two that Diggle thought were slightly suspicious and wanted to talk with but he suspected that it wouldn't lead to anything. He wanted to widen the search to former employees with an axe to grind against the research facility. It would mean that they would need to take another trip to Central City. She was contemplating having the company invest in a condo for her because she was racking up quite the hotel bill.

Next month she was supposed to present to the public and investors the new battery that Dr. Holt had been working on. Diggle could meet with the two employees then. She called the HR manager and requested that the other files he needed be prepared for him. CCPD still had no leads either and Felicity was beginning to wonder if they would ever find the culprits.

**Mar-8**

Felicity was coming back from a meeting with Bre Larvan about the improved security measures they had implemented across all their offices when she saw Detective Lance standing in front of her assistant's desk conversing in hushed tones with Diggle. John had walked her down to Bre's office before he got an urgent call. When she got out of the office there were two security guards waiting for her to escort her back upstairs.

"Is there a problem Detective Lance?" she asked eyeing her assistant who seemed very rattled.

Detective Lance covered the box that was in front of him quickly. She noticed it was addressed to her. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot as he thought about answering her question. Eventually his gaze settled on Diggle. Her bodyguard sighed.

"This box arrived for you this morning. As you're aware, Gerry opens all of your company mail," Diggle explained.

Felicity nodded. She knew what her assistant did for her.

"When he opened this box, he discovered what looked like a body part with a letter addressed to you," he continued.

"A body part?" Felicity asked horrified. Who would send her a body part!

"It looks like a finger but we will have to take it down to the lab to examine it further," Lance said explained.

"Why was it sent to me?" Felicity asked trying to remain calm.

"According to the note, the unsub, the unknown subject," Lance clarified when Felicity showed signs of confusion at the term unsub, "Disagrees with you doing background checks on your staff and has threatened to cut off your fingers if you don't stop. We're taking the box and the note for forensics analysis. In the mean time I've spoken to Mr. Diggle about increasing your personal security."

Felicity leaned against the desk stunned at what Detective Lance had just shared with her. She had received a threat. She had never been threatened quite like that before. She knew one thing for sure, Oliver was going to freak as soon as he got back from his meeting with the Board but she was not stopping their investigation. Someone was afraid of the background checks therefore the answer that she was looking for had to be in those files somewhere. Her phone pinged and it was a message from Alice with a picture of her holding her new-born son, Adrian. At least somewhere in the world good things were happening.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. If all goes as plan April should be up tomorrow. If not Tuesday.


	5. April

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow.

It was April's fool's day and Felicity was contemplating telling Moira that she and Oliver had eloped. The thought alone of how Moira would react brought a smile to her face. She eventually decided against that course of action because she didn't want to give Oliver's mother a heart attack. Her future children needed at least one grandmother to spoil them.

Felicity worked straight through the morning till lunch time when Moira finally arrived.

"Good afternoon Felicity, I have made a reservation for lunch for the two of us at the new Thai restaurant that opened downtown," she informed her. "We need to leave now if we are going to arrive on time."

"Lunch?" Felicity asked confused.

"Yes we have a number of things to discuss dear," Moira said turning around and walking through the door.

That woman really did behave like a Queen. She just expected her to follow after her. She could have an important meeting to attend on behalf of QC.

As if Moira read her mind, the woman turned to look back at her, "I checked with Jerry if you're available. He cleared an hour and a half for you, more than enough time for us to talk dear."

Felicity smiled tightly, "I'll be downstairs in a minute."

Moira nodded and walked towards the elevator. Felicity's eyes sought out Diggle's.

"You can't kill your assistant," Diggle pointed out to her in an even tone.

"No, but I can put the fear of God into him," Felicity said marching out of her office and glaring at Jerry.

Five minutes later she was in a limo with Moira and her security. Diggle was following behind in their car.

"I understand that the venue has been chosen but it is a mystery venue?" Moira said the disapproval clear in her tone.

"Yes," Felicity replied holding her head up high, "I've always loved solving mysteries growing up and I thought I could do a mystery themed invitation. The guests will all be given a location or maybe I'll do it in groups and give each group a different location in Vegas that way if the location of the wedding leaks, I can identify which group leaked it!" Felicity said pleased with that thought. It was the best idea she had had all day.

"The location isn't in Star City?" Moira said with a clear frown on her face.

"No it's in Nevada. We decided to host the wedding at the place where we had our first date," Felicity said with a fond smile.

"If I recall correctly, Oliver was on a tight budget then. He could hardly afford to take you to dinner at the Bellagio," Moira stated.

"It is not one of the hotels on the strip but rest assured it is a nice place. It means a lot to us and the owner agreed to our terms. Oliver already made a 50% down payment on the venue," Felicity explained to her.

Moira sighed deeply, "Yes he told me."

The car came to a complete halt signalling their arrival at the restaurant. Naturally the owner was there to greet Mayor Queen and personally escort her to their best table. Felicity informed the man about her nut allergy and asked the restaurant to ensure that no peanut sauce snuck its way into her food. Moira place her napkin on her lap and then settled her gaze on Felicity.

"My assistant will be sending you our list for the wedding," she said to her while she flipped through the menu the manager had left for them.

"List?" Felicity asked confused, she hadn't even touched the menu yet. She was still looking at the various statues and artwork that adorned the restaurant that gave you the feel that you were in Thailand.

"Yes. Our list of guests that we would like to invite to the wedding," Moira clarified.

"Oh, I haven't started working on that yet," Felicity admitted picking up the menu and skimming it. She already knew what dish she wanted to order but she needed to order something to go for Diggle since he wouldn't get to eat with them.

Moira gave her a patronising smile, "I know dear, that's your tent pole for the next month, the completed guest list by May 1st."

"Isn't that a bit early?" Felicity asked her eyebrows crinkling together. The wedding was in December, which by Felicity's calculation was eight months away.

"Not at all," Moira countered, "To finalise the rest of the details, you need to know how many guests you're inviting. That determines the amount of food the caterer will prepare, how many chairs and tables are required, how many tokens need to be purchase, how many invitations need to be printed, and the list goes on," Moira explained carefully to her.

"Oliver's handling the menu, bar and DJ," Felicity blurted out.

"I am aware of that," she said as the waiter arrived with drinks and a tray of appetisers on the house.

Felicity pulled her epi pen out of her purse and placed it on the table. She was always very careful with Thai food. Felicity moved the conversation away from the wedding to Thea's plans for the summer and if she would be interning at QC.

**Apr- 2**

That night Felicity opened the e-mail that Moira's assistant had sent to her. It was an excel spreadsheet complete with names, addresses and detailed information about the invitees position and relation to Moira and Robert. Felicity scrolled down the spreadsheet and the further down she scrolled the more her jaw began to drop. When she crossed 300 she called Oliver to stop whatever he was doing in the kitchen and come and see the spreadsheet. By the time he had arrived she had landed on the last guest in row 501. Given that the first row was the header that meant Moira's and Robert's list consisted of 500 names.

"Hell No!" she said to Oliver.

"What is that Felicity?" Oliver asked dumbfounded.

"This," Felicity said motioning angrily to the list on her tablet, "Is your parents list of invitees to our wedding."

Oliver frowned, "The venue might be a bit small."

"Is that all you can say?" Felicity asked blowing up at Oliver. "The venue is too small. No shit! You call your mother and you tell her that we are not inviting 500 people to the wedding," she said pointing her index finger angrily at Oliver.

"Felicity," he said calmly.

"No!" she said. "You are not going to talk to me in that calm voice of yours and try and convince me to let her have 500 people. No not going to happen mister!" Felicity insisted shaking her head from side to side. "I need a bottle of wine. I can't deal with this," she muttered heading to the wine chiller leaving Oliver with the offensive list.

She pulled out a bottle of Merlot and when the cork was proving to be as stubborn as her she turned to Oliver with the bottle in her hand. He pursed his lips and walked over. He easily opened the bottle for her and was reaching for a glass when Felicity stole the bottle from the island and walked back over to the sofa collapsing on it with a loud thud.

"You were serious about the bottle!" Oliver asked in disbelief.

"Oliver I'm stressed. I have a lot on my plate with this investigation, I have some crazy person threatening to hurt me if I don't stop said investigation, I have to ensure that we do launch the 10 new products we promised the Board would be on the market this year and I have to figure out what I want for our wedding. I do not have the time to sit down and go through 500 names and cut her list. It's all or nothing and I'm leaning quite heavily towards nothing," Felicity said to him.

"I'll go through the list for you," he said coming over and placing his hands on her shoulders. He started to massage them the way she liked. "Thank you. We should probably work on our own lists too," she said closing her eyes and enjoying the pressure his hands applied to her stressed muscles.

"I'll have it for you by next week," he promised.

"Great," Felicity said as Oliver worked on a particularly stubborn knot in her shoulder.

"Perhaps we should take this to the bedroom," he whispered by her ear.

"I totally agree."

**Apr – 3**

"Diggle," Felicity said to her buff bodyguard, "Can you please force Dr. Holt to sit down. If I watch him pace this room one more time I might be tempted to fire him!"

They were seated in a room that adjoined the press room that they set up for the battery launch. Curtis had peeked through the connecting door and said the press room was packed to capacity which meant all of the representatives that they had invited had turned up for the launch. That was a good sign and she was hoping to impress them with the battery so that the stock price could recover from the little dip it took in February after the robbery at the Research Facility.

The Public Relations Officer was supposed to give a brief background into the project and then Felicity would give the main presentation. Curtis would stand in the background and disconnect the battery from the pedestal to show that it was powering the room.

"Ms. Smoak, I am so sorry. It's just I'm nervous. This is the first time I'm launching one of my products. It's something that I designed and made, that's going to be presented to everyone. I poured two years of my life into that battery," Curtis said quickly.

"Curtis, all you have to do is stand in the back. I'm the one making the presentation to the media. Only, and I highly doubt this will happen, if I get a very technical question then I will ask you to speak. Other than that just stand there and look pretty for the camera," Felicity said calmly.

"That's easy for you to say. You've probably done this 1000 times Ms. Smoak. What if I pull a Machin!" Curtis said working himself up into a panic.

"A what?" Felicity asked tilting her head to the left.

"A Machin," he repeated, "Surely you heard about that incident when you were purchasing UNIDAC," he said. When Felicity stared at him blankly he explained, "Last year one of the security guards flipped right out and totalled one of the labs. The rumour was it had something to do with a project that was run out of that lab," Curtis said.

"Tell me more," Diggle said his interest piqued.

"That's all I know. You'll have to check with Dr. Snow. She might have an idea. That lab belonged to the former head of the biomedical projects, Dr. Binkley. He resigned after it became clear that QC was taking over UNIDAC. He wrote a long letter about evil multi-national corporations and how they were ruining the world. Claimed he couldn't compromise his moral compass. Caitlin worked closely with him, that was why she was promoted and became the new head," Curtis explained to them.

"What was this guard's name?" Diggle asked.

"All I know is his last name, Machin," Curtis answered.

They were interrupted by the PR officer calling them out to meet with the media but Felicity could see the gears turning in Diggle's mind.

**Apr-4**

Felicity fidgeted restlessly on the couch. It was a good thing Diggle wasn't there because he would have probably told her she was behaving like Curtis. Not even the three glasses of red wine she downed had been able to calm her down.

"I wish he would text or something and let us know if she said yes," Felicity said to Oliver who had given up trying to sit next to her on the sofa and sprawled himself out on the other sofa to look at the show Felicity was not looking at.

"Felicity honey, what were we doing after you said yes," Oliver asked her with a smirk.

"Oh," she replied as it finally dawned on her what might have Tommy preoccupied.

"How about we do that again and then sometime tomorrow we find out what Laurel's answer was," Oliver suggested with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"I do seem to have a lot of energy tonight Mr. Queen. Are you sure you can handle me?" she asked with a challenging glint in her eye.

He smirked back at her, "I'm always up for the challenge, love."

The next day, they were awoken by Oliver's phone. It was Tommy's ring tone so Felicity stretched across Oliver and answered it immediately.

"She said yes!" Tommy shouted happily into the phone.

"We never had a doubt," Felicity replied smiling at Oliver who had a questioning look on his face to let him know things turned out as they expected.

"That's good because I thought for sure she was going to roast me alive when she realised I didn't have the ring yet but she says she looking forward to us choosing the ring together," he explained to her.

"Didn't I tell you it would be ok," Felicity said. "Now get off the phone. You're going to need every dime you got to pay for that ring because Laurel isn't going to choose anything cheap."

"That's true! Just remind Oliver for me that we have a meeting later with the contractor at the club," he said before hanging up.

Felicity smiled happily at the phone before placing it on Oliver's bedside table. She snuggled back into his embrace.

"I'm assuming everything went well," Oliver said.

"Perfect. Everything is just perfect," Felicity said sleepily as she drifted back to sleep in his arms.

**Apr- 5**

"I think we have a problem," Diggle said coming into her office. During the day he had assigned two guards to her office while he worked on his background checks. Mr. Machin's file hadn't been provided to him and HR suspiciously couldn't find any record that he had ever been employed with UNIDAC. That raised several alarm bells. From interviews at the research facility Diggle had been able to discover the Machin's full name and he was using his sources to conduct a proper check into the Machin's records.

"What now?" Felicity groaned. She honestly felt like banging her head against the desk that day. While the launch of the battery had been successful and the share price jumped, the Board was on her case about the progress of two other projects that she had to push back the launch dates on. "Is it the crazy person sending those notes?" she asked. She had been receiving them at a rate of about one per week.

"I asked Caitlin about the projects that Dr. Binkley was working on because Mr. Machin could be the inside employee that was behind the robbery. He was in security so he would know exactly how the system operated. Caitlin could account for all the projects except one, Project Sampson. She said it was a military project and after the Machin incident the military stopped funding all of their projects and removed all the files related to those projects. The halt in funding was what made UNIDAC management accept QC's offer. She tried to get in contact with Dr. Binkley but he's disappeared. She did remember that Dr. Binkley had consulted with Dr. Wells so she is going to reach out to him and find out what he knows. But I got to tell ya Felicity, I have a very bad feeling about this," Diggle revealed.

Felicity groaned and dropped her head into her hands, "Another set of missing files. At least we have to be on the right track. I'll ask Brie to scan the server and see if he had hidden folder where he stored information," Felicity suggested.

"No," Diggle stated. "From now on we search for things ourselves. The person sending the notes knows every step we make. If you're going to check the server, then you do it yourself."

"Ok, I'll do some poking around the research facilities cyber network at home. I'll let you know what I find," she said.

**Apr-6**

Felicity ran down the corridor to the nurse's station in Staling City General Hospital.

"What room is Oliver Queen in?" she demanded. There was a lone nurse seated at the station writing in a file.

"Are you family?" the nurse asked without looking up. Seriously? She was plastered all over the news every day as gossip reporters debated their upcoming nuptials and people were still going to ask if she was family.

"Yes," Felicity answered.

"Room 201," the nurse said pointing down the corridor behind her.

Felicity rushed passed her looking for the room. 201 was all the way at the end of the damn corridor. She didn't bother to knock, she just barged straight in. She needed to see him. She found him sitting up on the bed shirtless with a nurse taking his blood pressure.

"Oh Thank God you're alive," she said looking over his injuries. His knee was wrapped but everywhere else seemed fine though she didn't understand why his shirt was off.

"Of course I'm alive. I just hurt my knee," Oliver responded pointing to the bandage around his knee.

"You could have included that in your message when you said they were rushing you to the hospital," Felicity said tersely. She threw a pointed glare at the nurse because it did not take that long to get someone's blood pressure.

"I would have but I was in a lot of pain at the time," Oliver said as the nurse unhooked the band from around his arm.

"And you're not now?" Felicity asked.

"Nope one injection of lidocaine straight to the knee and I feel like a brand new man," he said with a dopey smile.

"Until it wears off," Felicity noted. She watch the nurse leave the room before she continued their conversation."How did this happen?"

Oliver gave her a guilty look and she knew she wasn't going to like the answer.

"Roy called Thea to wish her good luck with her final exams and Alex answered the phone. He was helping her study. Roy freaked out, they fought over the phone. I told him we could spa together so he could work through his anger," Oliver said looking everywhere in the room but at her.

"Wait, Roy damaged your knee?" Felicity asked with narrowed eyes.

"It was a lucky shot," Oliver reluctantly admitted.

"I'm going to kill him!" Felicity screeched.

"Since you're angry with Roy and I'm injured and you can't hurt me, I think this is a good time to tell you that I brokered a deal with my mother concerning their part of the guest list," he said cautiously. She knew from the way he was watching her, he was gauging her reaction.

"Oh God! What did you commit us to?" Felicity asked horrified. Moira was so good at getting her son to do her will.

"A gala event after our wedding at the Plaza Hotel where she can invite all the guests she wants. She will pay for the event herself and handle all the details. All we have to do is show up and smile," he explained taking her hand in his and rubbing soothing circles on the back. It was a tactic he had started to use when he was delivering bad news to her.

Felicity bowed her head, "That doesn't sound that bad. I'm sorry for freaking out on you the other night maybe your parents can invite five persons each."

"Hey we're in this together," Oliver said softly, lifting her head so that he could look at her. "You always tell me that you're my partner and you're there for me. Well it works both ways. I'm here for you too," he said.

All sorts of loving feelings swelled inside of Felicity. "God I love you so much," she said leaning forward to kiss him. His arms wrapped around her waist and he tried to pull her up on to the bed with him but he ended up jarring his knee.

"Looks like we might have to cut back our night time activities," Felicity teased.

"Never!" Oliver responded.

The doctor arrived with the discharge papers and a wheelchair for Oliver, who complained bitterly about having to be in a wheelchair. As soon as they cleared the hospital doors he hoped out of it and into the back of the town car. He threw a nasty look at the crutches in Felicity's hand but she calmly loaded it into the back of the town car with them. Diggle managed to keep a straight face but she laughed the entire way home as her fiancé glared as hard as he could at the crutches. He insisted he didn't need it but when Felicity asked the driver to park in their usual spot and he realised that hopping his way to the elevator wasn't as easy as he thought it was, he grudgingly accepted the crutches.

When they reached back to the loft there was an envelope taped to their door addressed to her. The writing on the envelope was in the same font that all of her previous threats arrived with.

"What the hell?" Felicity said staring at the brown envelope on her door. This building was supposed to be secure.

Diggle immediately called the cops. They knew that Detective Lance would want to personally see the scene and have their forensics guys examine the area before anyone touched anything.

"Whoever this person is I'm going to kill them," Oliver said angrily.

Felicity snorted, "With that knee you aren't killing anyone."

**Apr-7**

Felicity stared stunned as Oliver put the diaper on the baby doll at Lyla's baby shower in record time. He did it faster than most of the women that had babies.

"How did you do that?" she demanded.

"I have a baby sister," he said. "A baby sister that I took good care of. I learned to change her diaper when there was no one around."

"Hey! I didn't know you did that?" Thea protested.

"Mom and Dad didn't know I did that either," Oliver countered. "Anyway I need to get back to the grill."

As he was limping passed her to head back outside to re-join the men, he whispered smugly in her ear, "I told you it wouldn't be what you expected."

The men had four bar-b-que grills outside and were competing to see who could do the best burgers, steak and ribs. Lyla was the ultimate judge and already declared her husband the winner for the best rack of ribs. Naturally the men accused her of being biased but she just told them to suck it up.

Thea teased her that the next baby shower would be hers. Felicity told her she would have to wait at least two years for that to happen because she wanted to enjoy her marriage before they had kids. That was something Lyla agreed with wholeheartedly. She couldn't imagine what a wreck she would have been if she had gotten pregnant right away.

The steaks were up next and Lyla devoured them. If it wasn't for Lyla's huge stomach one would wonder where it was going. Baby Diggle sure had a healthy appetite. Again the winner was Diggle. Felicity wondered why the guys were even competing when Lyla was clearly going to keep choosing her husband. By the time it came around to the burgers Felicity was already stuff to the brim but Oliver insisted she had to eat his burger as well. She cut a small piece of the patty away and handed the rest off to Oliver to eat. With all the muscle on his body, he would burn all those calories by the evening.

**Apr-8**

She was sound asleep in Oliver's arms when the sound of her cell phone woke her up. She tried to shift out of his arms to answer the phone but ended up accidentally kicking his knee which caused a slew of curse words. She apologised profusely while the phone never stopped ringing. Oliver reached for the offending object and looked at the caller ID.

"Barry Allen?" he said with a frown, "Why is he calling you at this hour?" Oliver asked the disapproval clear in his voice.

Felicity shrugged and pulled her phone away from him. Because she knew he would want to know every detail of her conversation with Barry she answered the phone on speaker, "Barry its 2:00am in the morning this better be good."

"You know Dr. Wells died today right?" Barry's very awake voice said.

"Yeah they said it was an accident on the news. Something about an experiment backfiring on him," Felicity replied thinking back to the newscast she had seen the previous morning.

"Here's the thing Felicity. I don't think it was. I took some samples of some foot prints found in the area and it was an exact match to the ones taken from your crime scene. Even the mass spec analysis of the dirt left behind in the foot print came back the same. I think the two cases are connected Felicity," Barry revealed.

Felicity shivered as a cold chill came over her. Caitlin was following up with Dr. Wells about Project Sampson. It can't be a coincidence that the same burglars turned up at Star Labs after Caitlin approached him.

"Barry, I think I might have a person of interest in the case," Felicity revealed. "Run a check on Lonny Machin."

**Apr- 9**

The next morning Felicity called Cisco to warn him that Dr. Wells's accident may not have been an accident. Naturally that sent Cisco into panic mode and it took her another hour on the phone to calm him down. CCPD had requested all camera footage from the accident and they had already sent it to them so there was nothing that Cisco could look at to verify what they suspected. Instead Felicity asked him if he knew about Project Sampson. Cisco decided to take a peek at the e-mails and communications between the two men.

He found a reference to a project Sampson but no details about what it was. Felicity wrote a facial recognition programme to look for Dr. Brinkley in Star Labs old security footage. She based Dr. Binkley's images on old security footage of she pulled off UNIDAC's archives. She also wrote another programme to find Dr. Wells's image in UNIDAC archives. On her end she didn't find anything but Cisco found several meetings between Dr. Binkley and Dr. Wells in his office. All of the meetings were conversations but the last one appeared to be a major argument between the two. The date of that meeting was the night after the Machin incident and a few days before he resigned.

**Apr-10**

At the end of the month the news was officially released that Tommy Merlyn was engaged to Laurel Lance. What surprised Felicity though was that the wedding date and venue had been released with the official announcement; October 20that the Plaza Hotel. That was before her own wedding. She had heard through the grapevine that Laurel had hired not one but two wedding planners. The gossip sites were abuzz with information. Pictures of the happy couple were on constant rotation starting from in high school to last week when they were seen dinning at the best Italian restaurant in Starling City.

Of course you couldn't talk about Laurel Lance without talking about her previous relationship with Oliver Queen. There were sites that had a complete timeline of their relationship, talking in detail about each breakup and what eventually led her into the arms of Tommy Merlyn. Felicity would have been happy not to have her name mentioned but the sites were quick to point out that Oliver had gotten engaged first but the details on his impending nuptials were very scarce.

Moira had of course called about releasing the date for their wedding but Felicity shut her down. Those vultures would not be getting an iota of information about their wedding. If Laurel wanted to release everything about her own wedding, she was free to do so. It was her wedding and if she wanted all of the media there to cover it, then so be it. Felicity did not want any of those sharks present on her special day. She was already grappling with the fact that the one person that she wanted there was the one person that couldn't be there. Her mother had been taken from her too soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. The next update will be on Tuesday.


	6. May

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow or the TV show Las Vegas. Felicity's birthday was established in The Challenge as being in May. I think I read somewhere that fans saw it was in July.
> 
> I can't decide if this chapter, August or the wedding is my favourite chapter. This chapter is also the longest one so far. Enjoy!

May 1st happened to fall on a family dinner and Felicity was just dreading the interrogation about the wedding that Moira was going to give her. There was no way that Queen matriarch was letting this opportunity pass. As expected as soon as the pleasantries were over and they were seated for dinner, Moira started with her tent poles.

"Felicity, your tent pole for next month is your wedding dress, bridesmaid selection and bridesmaid dresses. Oliver you should also select your groomsmen," Moira instructed them.

Raisa had just finished pouring the wine that was paired with their meal by the sommelier that Robert had on staff and Felicity took a big gulp. As expected it was excellent and Felicity decided she would have to add a bottle of that wine to her chiller back at the loft. She thought before she met the Queens that she had a fairly good knowledge of wines but she had been blown away by the different vintages and labels the Queen owned in their cellar. They not only had the known brands but they had wines from a few of the lesser known vineyards across the world that were on par with the best wines in the world. Her wine palette certainly appreciated family dinner at the Queen Mansion.

"Mom, I thought I told you to leave Felicity alone," Oliver said tersely. He hadn't touched his wine or cutlery. The entirety of his focus was on his mother. Felicity sensed a mother son fight coming.

"Your fiancée and I have an agreement where I will keep her on track for the weeding by giving her suggestions for what she should organise each month," Moira explained to her son. As usual, the Queen Matriarch was calm, cutting into her salmon and taking a bite. Felicity wondered what it would take to fluster her.

"It sounds more like you are ordering her around!" Oliver complained his forefinger and thumb rubbing together. He did that when he was frustrated. Felicity wanted to hold his hand to calm him down but she was on the opposite side of the table from him. Robert and Moira sat at either end.

"Oliver I'll have to kindly ask you to stay out of our agreement. It is working successfully so far," Moira said and Felicity found herself nodding in agreement. "Felicity has completed everything I have asked of her. You however have yet to tell me anything about the menu, the signature cocktail you're mixing for the wedding or the music selection," Moira said, her voice carried the same calm tone as before but there was a slight edge to it. She cut the head off of an asparagus spear on her plate and tasted it.

"There's a signature cocktail?" Felicity asked looking at Oliver. She hadn't heard anything about that. She had been contemplating asking for The Green Arrow to be served at the wedding but beyond that nothing else fancy.

"Gee mom thank you for spoiling the surprise," Oliver said sardonically to his mother. He finally picked put his knife and fork and attacked his salmon.

"You never said it was a surprise Oliver," Moira countered immediately while she focused on the baby roast potatoes on her plate.

"Oliver, leave your mother alone. She's only trying to help you," Robert intervened. He had remained silent on the topic up until now.

She could see the Oliver grudgingly swallowed whatever biting comment he was going to throw back at his mother and he chose to take a sip of wine to wash it down with. The tension in the room was thick so Felicity decided to change the topic of conversation far away from wedding planning.

"So Thea is home this week?" she asked. Oliver was still stabbing at the salmon while Moira was still the regal Queen at the end of the table.

"Yes with one complete year of college under her belt," Robert said proudly. It was hard to miss the smile that he wore whenever Thea was mentioned. At first Felicity had been afraid that Robert's pride that Thea had gotten into her school of choice and was successfully pursuing her degree without problems might have caused a bit of tension between Oliver and Robert, since Oliver's history with college was less than stellar but it hadn't. Oliver was equally if not more proud of Thea than Robert was.

"Speaking of Thea, she asked me to let you two know to keep the last Saturday of the month fully booked for her," Moira informed them.

"Why?" Oliver asked suspiciously.

"You'll have to ask her that but if I were to hazard a guess I would say she wants to spend time with her brother and future sister-in-law," Moira told him in a clipped tone.

Oliver fell silent and turned his attention to the potatoes on his plate. Felicity nodded but she knew Thea well. The young Queen had something up her sleeve.

**May -2**

They decided since their birthdays were so close that they would take a few vacation days and celebrate. They were going to take the jet to France and visit the vineyards there. Moira made a coy remark before they left about remembering to use protection because Felicity wouldn't look good pregnant at the wedding to which Thea told her mother that if they hadn't been using protection Felicity would already be on her second baby. Oliver was going to tell both of them that their sex life was none of their business but Felicity grabbed his arm and pulled him along to the limo that was waiting to take them to the airstrip.

The flight was smooth and restful since Felicity chose to sleep most of the way. In France, they drank champagne in Champagne, had dinner at the top of the Eiffel Tower and strolled the Champs Élysées, indulging at some of the cafes on the street. On the last days, Felicity arranged, as her gift to Oliver, for him to do a mountain climbing expedition on the French Alps. It was a one day trek that she knew he would enjoy very much while she shopped but he had to leave Paris the day before the trek and return the day after meaning he wouldn't be with her for almost three days. Since Dr. Wells's death, that he been no more threatening letters, and they were both fairly sure whoever was threatening her wouldn't follow them out to Paris.

She had a very long shopping list consisting of new work clothes, some casual dresses, ball gowns for galas, including the one that she now had to attend after her wedding and wine. She also needed to collect items that Moira and Thea had already pre-ordered before she left. Felicity had private viewings at all the big fashion houses. They all offered to make her a designer wedding dress but she turned them down. She was not here to deal with anything wedding related. On the last day, the last fashion house went over the top to empress her. They prepared a traditional French dinner paired with three different wines. She enjoyed eating while the models displayed outfits that they thought would look great on her. She loved everything she saw. If Oliver asked, her excuse would be that the wine made her a bit loose with her credit card.

She had no idea how late it was until Oliver called her. He had already returned and was disappointed to find that she wasn't waiting naked on the hotel bed for him. Felicity rolled her eyes at his comment but she did make an effort to finish up quickly. On the way back to the hotel, Felicity was forced to sit in the front seat of the limo since she had filled the back with bags. Maybe she had gone a little over board. She asked the driver to take the bags straight to the airport and the staff there would see about packing it on the plane or shipping it via air freight back home.

"Hi," she said meekly when she walked into the hotel room. He was waiting for her naked on the hotel bed.

"Hi," he said perking up once she had arrived.

She had to stop herself from laughing out loud. At least he was quite open to switching up the roles in the bedroom.

"Did you enjoy your expedition?" she asked kicking off her heels. She noted that he had packed up all her bags and laid out her travel outfit for the next day already.

"It was great but it was missing one little thing," he said eyeing her hungrily.

Felicity frowned. She thought she had accounted for everything. "What?"

"You," he said motioning for her to come join him on the bed.

"You still have energy for that?" Felicity asked exasperated.

"I'll always have energy for you though it might be better if you were on top tonight," Oliver admitted.

"I have no problem with that," she said shrugging out of her clothes and climbing on top of him.

**May -3**

After two and half months of renovating the steel factory to make it a club, it was finally opening night. There had been a lot of debate about the name of the club but in the end both boys decided to honour Bob with the name and it was called _Off the Beaten Circuit_. It was kind of long for a club name but that really didn't matter because once people heard the notorious playboys Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn were starting a club people were demanding to get in, especially since the boys were promising that it would be a much better experience than the usual club circuit Starling City had to offer.

Thea jumped at the opportunity to put some of what she had been learning in school into practice and offered to run the marketing campaign on social media. She created a list for persons to book their attendance at the club for opening night. There was such a high demand to get on the list, Thea eventually extended the list beyond opening night and the first two weeks for the club was fully booked.

Oliver's share of the profits was going towards the real estate company that Felicity got him to formally start the month before. They named it Arrow Apartments Ltd and Oliver and Felicity were the sole owners. Tommy was donating his share of the club's profit towards his mother's clinic in the Glades that gave people free medial treatment. Since the club was also located in the Glades, they took to the opportunity to employ persons from the neighbourhood that wouldn't usually be able to get a job.

They designed the club with three levels of entertainment. The basement was completely separated from the ground floor and VIP floor, so a completely separate party could be held there if wanted. Felicity was starting the night in the VIP area but she knew once the club opened she would need to head down to the office and ensure all of the systems were working properly. Her normally, cool, calm and collected fiancé was pacing the floor going through his mental list to ensure that everything was prefect for the opening. Considering Felicity went through the list with him 3 hours ago she knew everything was fine.

She walked up behind him and wrapped her hands around him resting her head against his hard back. He turned in her arms and looked down at her.

"Everything will be ok Oliver," Felicity assured.

"I know I just need to make sure this is a success," Oliver repeated for the hundredth time.

"It will be," Felicity told him, "But let me suggest something that will take your mind off of this for a little while," she stood on her tip toes to reach his ear, "Can you guess what I have on under this dress? Hint, it's a brand new purchase to celebrate your success," she whispered.

The bobbing of his Adam's apple as he swallowed registered in her peripheral vision. His gaze snapped to hers and his tongue automatically came out to moisten his lips. Pleased with her work, she walked away from him making sure to put a little extra swagger in her step. Less than a minute later, Tommy was calling out to Oliver that it was time to greet their guests.

She watched proudly from the railing as Oliver charmed the first stream of customers that entered the club. After about ten minutes she was needed to sort out a few snags in the system and she disappeared into the office. She monitored the social media broadcasts and the hashtags Thea had set up for the event. The club opening was trending state-wide and critics were calling it a success. The night would throw them one further surprise when Felicity got a text from Diggle informing that Lyla had given birth to a healthy baby girl.

**May – 4**

Her tent pole for this month was a list of things Felicity didn't even want to think about yet but if she was going to have an answer for Moira next month she needed to address it. The traditions of a Jewish wedding were obviously different to what Moira was familiar with. She knew she was not going to have a full traditional Jewish wedding but there were elements she wanted to use. She was going to make it a more blended ceremony incorporating aspects from both sides that they believed in.

The actual wedding day was a personal Yom Kippur for the bride and groom where they would fast before the wedding. She wasn't going to ask Oliver to do that but she liked the idea of fasting and breaking her fast with Oliver. They definitely weren't going to do the Kabbalat Panim which involved them being separated the week before the wedding. That was not something that would work for them. She was also going to skip the veiling of the bride. She liked the symbolism of the Chuppah, the open tent under which they would get married, and she wanted the handheld version. She also decided that she was not going to have a rabbi officiate the ceremony. She barely attended services at the synagogue and only observed a few of the major celebrations. She didn't even follow the Sabbath properly. Instead, she was going to ask Ed, a manager at one of the hotels that she worked at who was licensed to marry couples. Oliver wanted to break the glass so that would be a part of the ceremony. She liked the idea of the Yichud, a private room where she and Oliver would be taken to right after they say their vows. She highly suspected that she would want just a few moments alone with him after they say I do and it would also be the time she broke her fast.

There was no rule that said she couldn't have bridesmaids. The attendants at the wedding were supposed to be people that were close to you and Felicity was sticking to that rule when she selected her bridal party. She knew Oliver wanted to make both Tommy and Diggle his best man but only one man could hold the title. She was thinking that whoever wasn't the best man, she would ask to hold one of the poles of the Chuppah. To her that would be great honour since the Chuppah represented their house. The poles were the foundation and the pole bearers would be the foundation of her relationship with Oliver. She would also ask Thea to hold another pole.

She figured she would need at least a maid of honour and one bridesmaid. She suspected that Thea was going to manipulate Oliver into making Roy a groomsman. She didn't know if Oliver wanted anymore groomsmen. She hoped not. She didn't have many female friends. Her best friend was Oliver and her next closest friends were probably Diggle, Tommy and Sara.

There was no doubt in her mind that Sara would be her maid of honour. She couldn't imagine anyone else in the position. Her choices for the other bridesmaid were Lyla, Laurel, Alice, Samantha and Caitlin.

Lyla was a woman Felicity admired and she hoped to be as badass as Lyla one day. The woman managed Diggle, a job and her newborn effortlessly and still had time for friends. With Diggle already in the bridal party, Lyla would have to take care of baby Sara by herself. She didn't want to put too much strain on them by including both of them in the ceremony. A quick conversation with Lyla confirmed that she would be too busy taking care of Baby Sara to have any role in the wedding.

Her relationship with Laurel had deteriorated to the point that the other woman was nothing more than Tommy's fiancée. Since Felicity had openly supported Sara's decision to travel and explore the world, Laurel held it against her and it started to drive a wedge between them. There was also the fact that Laurel was in the midst of planning her own rush wedding. Even with the help of two wedding planners, she was stressed. Felicity was glad she decided to take her time and do things slowly. When Felicity made a decision, she was comfortable with it.

Alice and Samantha were both busy in Vegas. She was friends with them but not super close. They were also out for the same baby reason as Lyla.

Caitlin was someone Felicity could geek out with and she didn't have that with anybody else. She truly enjoyed her talks with her both professionally and personally. They were both women that had worked to reach were they reached in their fields. As much as she loved Oliver, it was nice to have friends that understood her passion for technology. It made her realise that balance was important in her life. She would ask Caitlin when she was next in Central City.

**May-5**

Felicity stared sadly at the fireplace. She felt Oliver's large hand fall on her shoulder. He had probably noticed her brooding from in the kitchen where he was preparing chicken cordon bleu for dinner and came to check up on her. His hand was warm and comforting and she tilted her head to rub her cheek against his hand.

"What's wrong Felicity and don't tell me it's nothing?" he asked in a caring tone he reserved only for her.

Felicity sighed deeply. "I made a few decisions regarding the wedding concerning the bridal party and what aspects of my Jewish heritage I want to go with," she started to explain. Without moving his hand from her shoulder, he walked around the couch and sat down beside her. He let his hand trace along her arm down to her hand and link their hands together. They had briefly discussed what a traditional Jewish wedding had entailed. "I'm going to have a bridal party of two, with Sara as the maid of honour and Caitlin as a bridesmaid. I asked Thea to be on the holders for the Chuppah but she didn't take it so well," Felicity admitted. She took a hesitant peek at his face, half expecting to find him as angry as his sister was, except there was nothing but happiness. "You're not angry?" she asked confused.

He frowned, "Thea was angry?"

"Yes, I thought maybe you might have been angry as well that I didn't include her in my bridal party," Felicity confessed.

"Why would I be angry about that? I know what the Chuppah means to you. You've bestowed an honour on my sister far more powerful than just being a bridesmaid. I'll talk to her about it."

"Oliver I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Thea's angry with me," Felicity said.

"This is a Queen problem. For all our money and all the places we've been, we've never learned to value other cultures or understand them. A Benjamin Franklin was enough to get us what we wanted. The incident I'm most ashamed of from my youth isn't peeing on that cop car," he revealed.

"It isn't?" she asked confused. She knew that certainly stood out in his history.

"Nope, when we were 18, Tommy and I celebrated the summer before college in Thailand. We paid a tour guide $100.00 to take us to the nearest Buddhist temple. We stripped naked and ran through the temple making sure to moon which ever horrified monk we passed by."

"Oliver!" Felicity said horrified.

Oliver bowed his head in shame, "It's the most disrespectful thing I've ever done, the cheating on Laurel comes in a close second. Do you see the type of man you're marrying," he said to her. She could see the uncertainty in his eyes. She could see he doubted that she wanted to marry him and she could see that he thought he wasn't worthy of her.

She squeezed his hand, "I see a man who has learnt from his past mistakes and has changed for the better. I see a man who's using the golden spoon he was born with to help others. I see the man I'm head over heels in love with and who I'm going to marry in December. I see the man who I want to be the father of my children. I see the man that I want to grow old with but most importantly of all, I see my life partner," she said. With every sentence she completed the light in Oliver's eyes grew brighter and brighter until he was glowing with happiness.

"Felicity Smoak, you are truly the most remarkable person that I know," Oliver said.

"Well thank you for remarking on that," she said before wrinkling her nose. "Honestly why does the English language fail me so. There must be another word I could have used besides remark!"

Oliver chuckled and pulled her into his lap to kiss her senseless. Things were heating up very fast but a loud buzzing of the oven timer meant it was time to take the chicken out of the oven before it started to burn and set off the fire alarm. Felicity was already banned from cooking by the fire department, he didn't want to invoke their ire either.

He pulled away from her and headed back into the kitchen, "I asked Tommy to be the best man. I also asked both Diggle and Roy to be groomsmen as well," Oliver said putting oven mitts on his hand to pull the chicken out of the oven. "I know things are out of balance in the bridal party. I'll have to cut Roy."

"Don't worry, I'm going to steal Diggle from you and ask him to hold one of the poles of the Chuppah as well," Felicity said with a smile on her face. She stood up from the couch and went over to inspect his chicken. As usual it was perfect, much like the way that she felt the wedding was coming together.

**May -6**

Felicity had appointments at all the major bridal boutiques. Her plan was to hit one each day after work. She had briefly thought about getting a designer dress made but Felicity honestly didn't have the time to sit through that process. She was hoping she could find something she liked that needed zero alterations. She would be more than happy to tell Moira she was done with this tent pole. For her bridesmaid's dresses she was going to let Caitlyn and Sara decide what they wanted to wear.

She found herself longing for her mother. She should be there by her side helping her choose. She could imagine her whole face lighting up when she found the one and telling her something crude about Oliver wanting to rip the dress right off of her as soon as he saw her. She didn't want to shop for the dress by herself so she decided to call Susie. The older woman had no problem coming out and helping her choose.

It was also an opportunity for Oliver to meet Susie and as she expected the two got along great. She hadn't told Oliver that she was shopping for the dress, and her little secret didn't stay secret for long. Oliver was mysteriously home every night waiting by the door for her, looking for packages in her hand. After about three nights of that she told him she was not brining the dress home. If she bought it, she would have it delivered straight to the apartment in Las Vegas and give Sam strict instructions that he was not allowed to see it.

Felicity started the week hopeful that she would find something but after the first few places panned out her hope diminished. She had tried on several nice dresses but none of them seemed like the one and from the expression on Susie's face, the older woman felt the same way. It was great having Susie to do this with because when the attendants asked if she was dieting for the wedding, Susie gave each one of them a lecture that went something along the lines of if Oliver was happy with her the way she is, there was no need for her to diet. Felicity was extremely grateful she had someone in her corner.

Susie more than took up the mantle of embarrassing Felicity the way her mother would have. The older woman insisted that they also needed to consider the garter and the lingerie she would be wearing under the dress. There were several instances where she had everyone in the room blushing. After six weddings she considered herself an expert on what should happen on 'The Wedding Night'.

They were at the last boutique about half way through their dress selection when Susie squealed.

"This is it! If Donna were here she would be over the moon. It's perfect for her little Felicity," Susie gushed.

Felicity looked at her reflection in the mirror. She did like the dress and it did represent her more than the others. This could really be the one. It was a strapless dress, which Felicity was very fond of. The bodice hugged her before flaring out slightly. There were little silk embroidered flowers on the skirts of the dress and a few tastefully added sequin patterns here and there. It wasn't over the top like some of the other dressed that she tried on. She was grateful the skirt part wasn't too large because she had fought with the skirts of a few dresses already that week. The large ones definitely had a life of their own.

Felicity purchased the dress in cash, she didn't need Oliver seeing it on their credit card statement, and then instructed them to ship it to Susie in Las Vegas. That way Sam wouldn't have to feel bad for turning Oliver down because she was 100% sure that Oliver was going to be very curious about the dress.

**May-7**

It was the last Saturday of the month and Felicity and Oliver were sitting down to eat a breakfast omelette when there was a knock at the door. Felicity was going to answer the door when Oliver pulled her back with a shake of his head. He would answer the door. She watched from the island as he cautiously opened the door. She barely managed to catch a glimpse of Thea as she pushed him out of the way and walked into the apartment looking at the expensive watch she had on her wrist.

"Why are neither of you ready!" she asked throwing her hands up in the air.

"Ready for what?" Oliver asked curiously.

Thea crossed her hands over her chest and started tapping her foot impatiently. "Ollie I know mom told you not to plan anything on the last Saturday of the month."

"She did," Felicity confirmed, "But I thought those plans might have been cancelled."

Thea exhaled, "Ollie, can you give Felicity and I the room for a moment?" she asked.

Oliver looked very uncertain about leaving them alone. "Now!" Thea demanded.

"I think I left something in the bedroom," he said. He gave Felicity an apologetic look and took the stairs two at a time.

Thea bounded over to her and took the chair that Oliver was previously seated in. She picked up his fork and started eating his untouched omelette.

"This is really good," Thea said savouring the taste of the omelette.

"Yes," Felicity agreed picking up her fork to dig into hers.

"You think he would mind if I ate all of it?" Thea asked cocking her head to the side cutely.

"Since it's you, he won't be as angry if it were Roy who ate it," Felicity replied.

Thea nodded her head in agreement and continued eating the omelette. "It would be great revenge after he made me spend an entire day in a synagogue learning about Jewish customs."

Felicity choked on the piece of omelette that she had just swallowed. She coughed and spluttered and picked up the glass of orange juice next to her to ease the ache in her throat. When the episode passed she looked at Thea, "He did what!"

"He said there was more to the Jewish faith than just celebrating Hanukkah and that I should understand the symbolism behind it. A rabbi gave us a long presentation about the major festivals as well as what the traditional Jewish wedding entailed," Thea admitted. She paused to chew hesitantly on her bottom lip as she studied Felicity. "I may have over reacted about the bridesmaid thing and I'm totally sorry Felicity. I didn't understand what an honour it was to hold one of the poles of the Chuppah. I would love to do it, that is if you still want me," she asked uncertainly.

"Of course I want you to do it!" Felicity responded.

"Great!" Thea said lighting up. "Just for the record Felicity, I absolutely love that you are doing your own wedding and standing up to mom about what you want vs. what she wants!" Thea gushed.

"You're mother probably does not like that very much," Felicity pointed out to her.

"On the contrary it makes her respect you even more. It shows your character. She thinks you'll be able to handle all the outside influences that threaten to tear you and Oliver apart," Thea admitted.

"Is it safe to come back?" Oliver asked on the last stair before the ground.

"Come on over big brother," Thea said happily.

"So what have you got planned for us today," Oliver asked with a large smile on his face.

"Makeovers and that includes you brother," she said looking deviously at him, "In fact I booked you a mud bath!"

Oliver groaned but Felicity knew he loved his sister very much and if she wanted to spend the day with them, he would acquiesce and do what she wanted. However, his look soon turned to one of anger when he looked at his empty breakfast plate.

"Speedy, where's my omelette!"

**May-8**

Felicity enjoyed the day very much. Relaxing at the spa with Thea had been good for her health and she made sure to let Thea know that she wanted to do it again. They enjoyed watching Oliver in his mud bath. Plenty of pictures were taken and Tommy had a lot of interesting comments to make, that was until Laurel saw the pictures and started insisting that Tommy needed to do one as well.

After the spa, Thea took them to a boutique where she selected a new suit for Oliver and a fancy dress for herself and Felicity. Oliver was then forced to tag along, as their nails, hair and make-up were done before she forced them to wear the clothes she had purchased for them.

"Thea aren't we a little over dressed for dinner at the Mansion?" Felicity asked as Thea led them along the corridor to the dining room.

She gave them a wicked smile. Instead of turning into the dining room, she led them to a larger area that they used for parties, "Actually I had other ideas for dinner tonight," she said as she opened the door to the dark room. She pushed them both inside. Suddenly, the room was flooded with light.

"Surprise!" a room packed with all of their friends said.

"What's all this?" Oliver asked stunned. Felicity was still trying to find where her voice had run off to.

"Welcome to your engagement party," Thea said excitedly, "I know you didn't have time to plan one so I did it for you."

"Thanks Speedy," Oliver said pulling her into a hug.

Everyone from Las Vegas was there including Susie. She had wondered why her mother's friend had stayed on in Starling City after they found the dress and now she knew why. She also discovered that Susie had found a way to loosen Moira up! Both Felicity, Oliver and Thea were flabbergasted when Moira downed a shot of tequila. Felicity needed to find out what magic Susie had worked because she was sure she would have need of it in the future.

Thea had even gone the extra mile and invited her friends from Central City. Cisco, Ronnie, Caitlin, Barry, Iris, Curtis and his husband were all there. Oliver was a bit broody when Felicity ended up dancing with Barry. Her fiancé was still having a hard time accepting her friendship with Barry but Felicity was very understanding of his ego. She felt the twinge of jealousy too whenever Oliver was talking with an old flame.

Everyone wanted to talk to them about the date and location of the wedding. They happily told their friends the date but refused to give them any details about the location. No one would find out until the day of the wedding. Felicity got so caught up in enjoying the night she forgot to take this opportunity talk to Caitlin about being her bridesmaid before her Central City crew left to catch the last train back home. She would just have to fall back on her original plan.

The night ended with both of them collapsing on Oliver's bed in his old bedroom more than a little drunk but extremely happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there is no update tomorrow. June should be out on Thursday. If something comes up again then Friday.


	7. June

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow.

It wasn't until late afternoon on the first working day in June, did Moira finally arrive in Felicity's office. She was beginning to hope that Moira had done away with the tasks and was satisfied with the progress made on the wedding preparation thus far but alas, it was too much to hope for.

"Good afternoon Felicity," Moira said pleasantly.

"Good afternoon Moira," Felicity said looking past her to notice that Jerry had conveniently disappeared from his desk.

"I must say you're doing a fabulous job at meeting the challenges we set every month," Moira said. Internally Felicity was wondering how Moira came to the term 'we'. Felicity most definitely did not have any input into the tent poles Moira chose and she knew Robert was staying as far away from wedding preparation as he could. He was a smart man and he knew if he poked his nose in, he probably would not survive the onslaught from both her and Moira.

"Since the guest list appears to be finalised," Moira started which caused Felicity to bristle. She finished that guest list over a month ago. That was here tent pole for May 1st and she had it ready. She had capped the wedding at 103 guests. The list of course included their friends in Las Vegas, along with her new Central City friends and Oliver's friends in Starling City. Robert and Moira had each invited five persons and there were also the mandatory family invitations that went out to the Queens, and the Deardens. The board of QC was invited as well as the managers of the casinos that Felicity had worked closely with when she started her career.

"It's time to send out the invitations but first we need to get them designed and printed. You also need to think about what tokens you will be giving to the guests," Moira stated regally completely unaware of the anger she had sparked in her future daughter-in-law.

Felicity put on a fake smile and in a voice that was sugary sweet she said, "Not a problem!"

Moira cast her soul searching gaze on her again and Felicity kept her back ramrod straight. Whatever the woman was looking for she would not find. If Thea was right and she did respect her then she would accept her word and leave.

"Will we be seeing you for lunch this Sunday?" Moira asked.

"Yes Oliver and I will be there," Felicity assured her.

"Good because I invited Roy and Alex to come to lunch," Moira revealed.

"What!" Felicity exclaimed. Was Moira out of her mind? Roy hated Alex. Much of the stress of his relationship with Thea was because of Alex. Maybe Moira was hoping this would be the tipping point in their relationship and Thea would break up with Roy permanently.

Moira stood up, "Good Day Felicity. I will see you on Sunday."

**Jun-2**

Felicity decided to work on the wedding invitations first. She knew she was going to do a mystery location and she divided her guest list into sections of 8 persons that could be transported in mini buses to the event. Each section would be given a different location for collection. She would have to ask Bob to for recommendations for taxi companies that could complete the job for her. She would hire them through Bob or through the restaurant so there would be no link to the Queen name.

For the colour of the paper and envelope she decided to go with emerald green since the birthstone for May was emerald. She would use silver for the writing. She had access to a number of computer graphic programs and in one night she designed her invitation. The border was a series of Arrows running along the perimeter of the page. At the top of the invite, she had a computer and at the bottom she had another computer. The writing was in between the two computers.

_Felicity Megan Smoak_

_&_

_Oliver Jonas Queen_

_Cordially invite you to attend our wedding_

_On December 4_ _th_ _in Las Vegas_

_Transport will be provided from the Bellagio Hotel at 1:00pm to the mystery location_

_In lure of gifts, we wish for a donation to be made to_

_Rebecca Merlyn's Free Clinic, Ac#100023058, Starling National Bank_

_RSVP by November 1_ _st_ _to fmsmoak@smoakmail.com_

She showed it to Oliver and he was quite pleased with her work. It wasn't a professional design but Oliver thought it was a fair representation of them. For their token to the guests, she was giving everyone a prototype of the new tablet QC was designing.

She was glad to be finished with one of the tent poles so early. Since Jerry was quite fond of letting Mrs. Queen just prance into her office in a regular basis, she decided he would have to order the paper for the invitation (which was going to take two months to source since Felicity went out of her way to order something very scarce), order the envelopes (from the same supplier as the paper so that the colours exactly match), print the names onto the envelopes (Jerry would have to go down to the marketing department where the printer capable of doing it exactly the way Felicity wanted was located and talk to his nemesis to use the printer) and mail them out. All of that would mean the invitations would be sent in September, which was three months before the wedding, more than enough time.

**Jun-3**

She was staring out the window watching the scenery pass by as they drove out into the country side where the Queen Mansion was located. She had her hands in her lap but she was fidgeting. Just before the gates to the manor Oliver stopped the car.

"What's wrong? Is it the wedding?" he asked turning to face her in his seat.

"No, I was just thinking about Roy," she said still staring out the window.

"You're in a car with me and you're thinking about Roy. Clearly I'm doing something wrong," he quipped.

Felicity turned her head to look at him and glared. "Roy was invited to lunch," she revealed. She hadn't gotten a chance to tell Oliver about both Roy and Alex being at lunch.

"So?" Oliver asked. "When Thea is here Roy normally comes to lunch."

"Yeah but this time Moira also invited Alex," Felicity added.

"Oh…. I see the problem now," Oliver admitted looking back to the gates of the Manor he could see just up ahead. "I may have to ask Raisa to remove all the knives from the table."

"And the forks. You can fork someone as well," Felicity said absentmindedly. Oliver snapped his head towards her and she ducked her head in embarrassment.

It turned out they didn't have to worry about the cutlery because the two men were full on fighting in the courtyard with Thea yelling at them to stop. Moira stood on top the stairs watching the scene unfold before her without a care in the world. Oliver jumped out of the car and ran forward to help the two security guards that were trying to separate the boys. Felicity sure hoped Oliver didn't hurt his knee again. She had given Roy a good piece of her mind about that. Oliver at least needed to be able to stand next to her during the wedding.

Once the men were separated, Felicity was able to get a better view of both of them. Alex was sporting a split lip, two rapidly bruising eyes and a torn shirt. Roy seemed to have gotten away with just a bruise to his jaw and a torn shirt. Thea's eyes were red and long tears ran down her cheeks as she seemed completely at lost about what to do.

Roy struggled out of Oliver's hold, "I'm getting out of here," he said.

"Roy," Thea said weakly but he ignored her and started walking out to the main gate.

"I can give you a lift back to the city," Felicity offered as he walked passed her.

"Its fine blondie. The walk should help me clear my head," he answered gruffly.

Felicity watched him walk all the way to the gate. She felt Oliver's hand applying pressure to the small of her back but she wasn't ready to go inside until she couldn't see Roy any longer.

"He'll be fine," Oliver said softly to her.

Felicity turned angry eyes to him, "That shouldn't have happened."

"Agreed, we'll talk it out at lunch," he said applying a little more pressure to her back to get her moving forward.

As per usual, Raisa had outdone herself with both the setting of the table and the actual meal. Alex decided to stay for lunch so that curtailed any conversation that Oliver wanted to have with his mother. They learned from Alex that he had graduated from Stanford and was going to start interning at Moira's office on Monday. Thea had known about it for weeks but hadn't mentioned a word to anyone. Felicity was amazed that not one word about the incident was mentioned and most of the lunch was spent discussing what Alex would be doing in the office. Felicity only relaxed slightly when a ping to Roy's phone, revealed that he had arrived safely back home.

**Jun-3**

Felicity approached Oliver in the kitchen where he was cracking eggs to make omelettes for breakfast. She had an epiphany the night before when she was admiring her engagement ring as she was waiting for Oliver to finish watching the game and come upstairs to bed.

"Oliver, can I design your wedding band?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked up at her surprised and she started to chew on her bottom lip, a habit she knew drove him crazy. He stared at her bottom lip.

"Are you going to answer the question," she asked with a small smile. She loved the effect she had on him.

"What was the question again?" he asked sheepishly.

"Your wedding band, I would like to design it the way you did my ring?" Felicity said leaning over the counter to kiss him.

"Mmm," he said into the kiss.

"What was that she asked?" when they broke apart.

"Yes, design whatever you want. I'll forward you the name and location of the jeweller. I can make your appointment too if you want," Oliver offered.

"That would be great! I'm in Central City next week so it needs to be this week. Any time after 5:00pm is good. If he wants to meet earlier let me know and I'm sure I can move some things around."

**Jun-4**

Felicity met with the jeweller two days later. She was very nervous because she wasn't sure how this process was going to go. Oliver had told her how he designed her ring and she was hoping that she could do something similar. While she had a vague idea how she wanted the ring designed, she couldn't conceptualise how it would look on the ring or if it was even possible to do something like that. Mr. Liberstein's assistant led her to his personal workshop in the back. The man was hunched over a bracelet that he was working on. Felicity waited patiently for him to finish what he was doing before she announced her arrival.

From where she was standing it looked like he was carefully setting stones in place on the bracelet. He had small but precise tools that he was using to accomplish his job and she found she was fascinated by the care he took in his work. It shouldn't surprise her that Oliver had selected someone that took great pride in every piece of work that they produced.

"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to come in?" he asked not looking away from the bracelet in front of him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb you," she told him moving over to a stool that was on the opposite side of his workbench.

"You have an appointment Ms. Smoak. You are not disturbing me. I agreed to meet with you at this time," he pointed out.

"I didn't want to break your concentration on the bracelet," she said trying to look as regal as possible on the stool. She probably failed in comparison to someone like Moira.

"I can do those in my sleep. Let's discuss why you are here. I have to admit Ms. Smoak this is a highly unusual couples just say what they want engraved on a ring. A man's ring is usually a plain band, some men might add a jewel on top," he informed her.

"I know but Oliver is more than just a plain man, he's complex, our relationship has many layers, it's almost as if we've become integrated in one another even though we are separate beings that are independent. Do you understand what I am trying to say?" Felicity said.

"Yes. I do. It is why I agreed to do this. It will be a nice challenge to create the accompanying piece to your engagement and wedding rings. Tell me what you have in mind?" he said thoughtfully.

"I want it to be similar to my ring," Felicity said playing with the engagement ring on her finger. "I love the Arrow. When I first met Oliver he was Oliver Arrow. There's a signature cocktail at Bob's bar in honour of Oliver called the Green Arrow, it's what we are going to be serving as all of the guests arrive. He's also developing another cocktail for the reception."

"Mr. Queen told me a lot about his time in Las Vegas and how you helped shape the man he is today," Mr. Liberstein admitted to her.

"I didn't have that much to do with it. He was already there. It just wasn't the right time for him to emerge before. Oliver is the person he is because of the choices he made. He chooses to be kindhearted and generous. He chooses to love me," Felicity said.

While she talked, Mr. Liberstein drew. A couple times he stopped to rip the paper from his notepad and start over. Felicity would pause and look at him but he would encourage her to keep talking. When she was finished he had a complete design. Felicity was in awe of his complicated design. She didn't know if it was even possible to get such a design on a ring. He had drawn a series of tech items such as a computer, tablet, and phone and then used a vine of arrows to connect each object on the ring. Inside he had an engraving that read, _Felicity's Oliver_.

He promised they would have their rings in time for the ceremony. Felicity was tempted to ask him for a peek at the design for her wedding band but she decided not to. She wondered if her band would have _Oliver's Felicity_ engraved inside of it. She thanked him for his time and made a 50% down payment on the ring. The final payment would be due in December when the ring was finished.

**Jun-5**

Felicity shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She was seated at a long table in a bland room with floor to ceiling windows. The view of the city of probably beautiful but she hadn't paid any attention to it. She and her lawyer sat on one side of the table and Oliver and his lawyer sat on the other. It was the day that they were signing the Prenuptial Agreement. Felicity had already gone through it with a fine tooth comb and made the necessary changes. She had to admit that Moira gave her a lot to think about and a lot of her suggestions ended up in the revisions that Felicity made. She was surprised when the document came back with all of her revisions accepted. Oliver wasn't going to fight her on anything.

Both lawyers were going through the last minute details, reminding them about what the prenuptial arrangement meant and if they weren't comfortable with it that they needed to say so before they signed it. Oliver picked up his pen and signed it immediately. He passed it across the table to her. She picked up her pen and signed as well. She just sealed her fate should their marriage come to an end before their tenth anniversary.

"Is that all?" Oliver asked his lawyer.

When the man indicated that there was nothing else to do, he stretched his hand across the table and invited Felicity to leave with him.

"I think we need a nice romantic lunch after doing that," Oliver admitted, his thumb running circles on the back of her hand.

"We have to get back to the office," Felicity reminded him. As nice as the lunch sounded, they both had responsibilities.

"Can't we just play hooky once? I mean all of our employees do it. Just yesterday the entire accounts department went to lunch and didn't come back," Oliver pointed out.

She tapped him on his arm, "You know very well they went to a sushi restaurant to celebrate a birthday and they all fell sick from bad fish."

"So they claim!" Oliver retorted.

"They weren't the only ones that fell sick and it was all over the news. The restaurant even issued a statement apologising for the tainted fish," Felicity reminded him.

"So no lunch," Oliver pouted.

"How about I offer you one better, Independence Day falls close the weekend this year. We can take a short trip down to Cabo San Lucas. I hear it's beautiful. Just the two of us enjoying the sun, sea and sand," Felicity offered him.

"And the bed, don't forget the bed Felicity. That is very important," Oliver reminded her.

She laughed softly, "Yes Oliver, the bed."

**Jun-6**

Felicity decided to take the train to Central City this time. They were only in June but her travel budget for her department was almost shot. The Board had finally agreed to purchase a condo in Central City to accommodate staff when they needed to conduct meetings there so she hoped she could make the remaining sum last until December. Diggle was not very pleased with the change though. It made his job of protecting her harder. Just because the notes had stopped coming after Dr. Wells's death didn't mean that the threat had disappeared. Until they solved the case, Diggle had the security teams on high alert.

She asked Caitlin to pick her up alone at the train station. From the train station she took her to lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant on the waterfront. She knew her friend suspected there was something up so as soon as they were seated and waitress walked away to get their drinks, Felicity brought up what she needed to talk to her about.

"Caitlin, I realise we've only known each other for a few months but I think we've grown close as friends," Felicity stated. "I don't have many friends, particularly friends who can understand what I'm talking about three quarters of the time. Even Oliver, who has known me longer than most people currently in my life, which is kind of sad when you think about it," Felicity said pausing to reflect on the people in her life and how long she had known each one, "Wait where was I with the conversation?"

Caitlin gave her a soft smile, "I believe you were getting to the point, at least I hope you were getting to the point," Caitlin said with that soft expression she used when she was trying to say something kind of mean in a gentle way.

"Believe me, I hope I was getting to the point as well. I guess I should just spit it out then, Caitlin, I want to ask you to be a bridesmaid at my wedding," Felicity said satisfied that she had finally said what she was building up to.

"Really, I would be honoured!" Caitlin said excitedly. "For a minute there it sounded like you were trying to break up with me, which was weird because we aren't together."

"Great, that was much easier than I thought it would be. In my head, I came across as a psycho stalker. The only person left to ask is Sara. She'll be my Maid of Honour," she told her.

"How many of us are there?" Caitlin asked curiously.

"Oh just the two of you. Not that I only have two friends. Lyla just gave birth so she wasn't an option. Alice and Samantha were sort of options as well but they also have children," Felicity said a bit defensively.

"I have a little confession to make," Caitlin said. "I don't know what a bridesmaid is really supposed to do. I've never been one before. Like you I don't have many friends. In high school many people thought I was cold and I picked up the nickname Frosty. It followed me all the way to medical school."

"Well that makes two of us but guess what, that is why the Gods gave us Google!" Felicity said pulling out her phone and googling bridesmaids. Several pages came up and she forwarded them to Caitlin. "There you go, some guidance. Let it not be said that I was a terrible bride," she said before chewing on her bottom lip and adding, "Frosty!"

"Felicity!" Caitlin said in indignation.

Felicity broke out in laughter, "Sorry I couldn't help it. Frosty reminds me of Frosty the Snowman and I loved Frosty the Snowman," she crinkled her eyebrows, "Never mind that I'm Jewish."

The two continued to eat before Caitlin brought up the topic of the investigation. "I remembered something recently. The computer that belonged to Dr. Binkley that the military confiscated was a recent upgrade that he had only had for about two months. The computer he had before that was given to the secretary of the department. It was only when they upgraded her system this week that I remembered she had his old one. I kept the computer in my office in case you wanted to go through it to see if we could find any more information on what he was working on," Caitlin offered.

"That sounds like a fantastic idea Caitlin!" Felicity said excitedly waving her hand for the waitress to come to them so she could ask for the cheque.

**Jun- 7**

They returned to the office and Felicity immediately set about the task of searching the computer. The files she was looking for would be under his user profile so she reset Dr. Binkley's password and logged into the computer. As they had suspected, he had in fact saved all of his work to his desktop rather than the shared file server. There was a folder labelled _Sampson_ on the desktop. That was definitely what they were looking for. The properties told her that the last update of the file was just before Dr. Binkley got his new computer. The original project proposal was there as well as the contract with the military. Felicity printed everything in the folder for them to review.

"I don't understand any of this Diggle admitted," as he looked through one of the early progress reports that Dr. Binkely had officially submitted for the project.

"It seems you were right though," Felicity commented.

"Right about what? All I see is a bunch of dead rats," Diggle said showing them a picture of dead rats in a cage that was submitted in the appendix to the report.

"You commented about Sampson and Delilah jokingly one day. What Dr. Binkley was working on was creating a formula to make super-soldiers," Caitlin explained.

"That sounds like the plot in one of those sci-fi films Felicity is always looking at," Diggle commented "That's not possible," he said looking between Caitlyn and Felicity uncertainly, "Is it?"

"According to some of his notes he was getting close to human trials. The rats were surviving their injections and showed increased physical abilities. Though they tended to get a bit violent with each other but he was sure he would solve that problem and be able to begin human trails within the month," Caitlin said her eyes focused on the document she was reading.

"Did he start the human trials?" Diggle asked a bit horrified at what he was hearing.

"I wasn't aware of any trials being run," Caitlyn said.

"Maybe he had a setback?" Felicity suggested. "Did he date any of the entries in his notes?" she further asked.

"No dates but I don't think he had any setbacks. Dr. Binkley was a genius in his field. If he was confident that he was close, then he was close," Caitlin said confidently.

"How does Mr. Machin fit into all of this?" Felicity asked.

"Maybe he found out about the project and threatened to tell. The military doesn't like their secrets out in public. It was probably why they withdrew so quickly," Diggle surmised.

Felicity pursed her lips, "I think we're missing something."

**Jun- 8**

The next day Felicity received a text from Sara stating that both she and Nyssa were in Central City for a meeting and she was wondering if Felicity was still in the city. As luck would have it Felicity was and they met for dinner at a small restaurant on the waterfront. She hugged both of them.

"It's been three months since I last saw you both!" Felicity complained.

"Work has been hectic," Nyssa admitted. "We had two new wells come on stream in Africa and we're trying to sell CNG to Central City. I had meetings all day with the Mayoral staff here."

Felicity nodded in understanding before turning to Sara, "What did you do all day?"

"I got to explore the city," Sara said with a large smile. "I've never been here before so there were certainly a lot of sights to see."

"Sara certainly gets to enjoy the perks of travelling more than I do," Nyssa confessed.

"As you're close by, are you going to swing by Starling City to see your family?" Felicity asked.

Sara pursed her lips, "No. Bridezilla might strangle me."

Felicity sighed, "I'm sure she's not that bad."

"Not that bad! Felicity she changed the colour scheme to the wedding four times. Four times! That's just the colour scheme. Did you hear about the chef that threw the tray of canapes at her after she kept making him do it over and over?" Sara asked.

Felicity nodded, Tommy had related that story to them one night. "She's a perfectionist. We all know that. It's just a little worse now because this day means so much to her."

"You say that now, wait until you're on the receiving end of her wrath. I turned down the maid of honour position because I know I couldn't do it," Sara revealed. "I'll settle for being a normal bridesmaid with minimal responsibility. That way I don't need to get ripped apart when a little thread is showing."

"Oh," Felicity deflated.

"What?" Sara asked seeing the change in mood of her friend.

"I wanted to ask you to be my maid of honour," Felicity admitted hesitantly.

Sara's entire face lit up, "I would love to, though Laurel would probably freak since I turned her down. She thinks our friendship is poisonous," Sara said pointing between herself and Felicity.

"I believe my beloved's sister is jealous of the relationship you have with Sara and I think she is letting that jealousy taint her relationship with my beloved," Nyssa wisely commented. If Felicity remembered correctly, Nyssa had an older sister Talia and a younger brother Dusan.

Continuing in the same vein of family, Felicity decided to ask Sara a serious question, "Are you going to tell your family about you and Nyssa?"

Sara shook her head, "Not yet. I'm not ready. They are not ready. Laurel's wedding is coming up. Let's focus on one thing at time."

"So you're not taking Nyssa to the wedding?" Felicity asked keeping a careful eye on Nyssa to gauge her reaction.

Nyssa linked hands with Sara, "It is ok. I do not need to go and only when Sara is ready to let her parents know, will I make myself known to them."

Felicity smiled. She was so happy that Sara had found someone that loved Sara for who she was and was willing to have the patience to wait while Sara worked through her issues.

**Jun-9**

She was running for her life from a group of mercenary kangaroos. She didn't know where she was but the buildings around her looked vaguely familiar. A part of her knew it was a crazy dream. She had had this specific dream before but the loud ringing sound was certainly a new addition to the dream. It took her a few more moments to realise that the ringing was coming from outside her dream and a further few seconds for her to pin point the sound to that of her cell phone. When her eyes opened, she was in a warm cocoon with Oliver's naked body spooned around her, his hand holding her firmly against his body.

"That better not be Barry again," Oliver stated grumpily.

Felicity tried to reach forward but Oliver's arm hadn't budged. "If you want the ringing to stop you need to let go," she pointed out.

He reluctantly let her out of his embrace and she reached for the phone on her bedside table. Perhaps she should develop a phone that takes voice cues so that when one is bed, she could ask the phone who was calling and it would answer her. She picked up the phone and looked at the face smiling back at her.

"It's Caitlin. It must be important," she said to him.

"Let's hope no one is dead," Oliver said rolling on to his back.

"Don't be so morbid," Felicity chastised him.

She answered the phone on speaker again, "Felicity someone broke into my office. The computer and all of Dr. Binkley's notes are gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. I'm trying to figure out how many people would be disappointed (if anyone would be disappointed) if I didn't post July until Tuesday?


	8. July

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. This chapter is now the longest chapter.

Felicity hurried out of the elevator towards her office. She didn't see Jerry around to give her the usual morning briefing but because she was running late, (in hindsight round two in the shower hadn't been that good of an idea) he was probably in the copy room working on the reports for the Board. She opened the doors to her office to find Moira waiting for her. So that was why Jerry was conspicuously absent from his desk. Seriously, he needed to grow a backbone when it came to handling Moira.

"Good morning Felicity," Moira said pleasantly making a show of looking at the expensive wrist watch on her hand.

"Good morning Moira," Felicity said walking to her desk and unloading her laptop from the bag and plugging it into the docking station.

"You're a little late this morning," Moira observed.

"Yes Oliver and I were running a bit behind schedule today," Felicity responded turning on her computer. A year ago she probably would have been blushing like a teenage girl but she had learned to hold her ground.

"I hope that is not a regular occurrence," Moira chided her.

"I assure you it's not. Had it been, Robert would have reprimanded the both of us a long time ago," Felicity pointed out while she logged into the system. Her computer was programmed to open her e-mail as soon as she logged in.

"I suppose you are correct," Moira reluctantly conceded.

Felicity gave her e-mail a quick once over. She had fifty new messages, three of them from Board members and one from Detective West with the results of the latest investigation into the theft from Caitlin's office. It was going to be a very long day.

"So what's my tent pole for this month," Felicity asked looking up from her computer.

"I'm afraid I haven't seen the wedding invitation design," More stated with a slight frown to her features.

"Oh that was completed weeks ago, talk to Jerry about it," Felicity said with a sly smile. "He's working on getting it printed."

Moira looked doubtful but Felicity honestly didn't care. The situation with the research facility was escalating and she needed all of her brain power to focus on that.

"Very well. This month you should focus on your wedding cake, and I've already told Oliver that he cannot bake it," Moira said. Felicity cracked a small smile at the thought of Oliver preparing their wedding cake. He certainly was adventurous enough to try but Felicity suspected that the cake she wanted, would be a bit outside of Oliver's current culinary capabilities.

"I'll recruit Thea to help me with the cake," Felicity offered. That way Moira could pester Thea for details and leave her alone.

"It would have been more prudent for you to have bridesmaids who were based in Starling City to help you," Moira pointed out. "Thea returns to school in September."

"I am a child of technology. I don't need my bridesmaids here to get anything done. I can skype them whenever I want," Felicity replied angrily.

"That may not be enough," Moira stated, "There was more we needed to discuss but I have a meeting that I will not be tardy for. Good Day Felicity," Moira said standing and strolling out of her office. Perhaps round two in the shower should have been followed by round 3 in the car so that she could have avoided Moira altogether.

Jerry conveniently returned less than a minute later with a stack of folders in his hand. Oh no, he was not getting away with that.

"Jerry!"

**Jul-2**

They landed in Cabo and went straight to the hotel. Oliver insisted that they needed to test the bed immediately as it was a critical part of their vacation experience. Felicity had every intention of humouring him but she warned him that she was not spending her entire time in Cabo in the hotel room. She actually had plans to see the sights. Oliver tried his darndest to erase that notion from her head but she held firm in her stance.

After their first breakfast in the hotel, Felicity dragged Oliver to the beach. He protested a little bit until she took off the wrap dress she was using to cover her swimsuit. His expression reminded her of those cartoon characters whose jaw drops to the ground and eyes widen when they saw something sexy pass by.

"Like what you see?" she teased. She was wearing the classic bikini design in an electric blue colour that really made her eyes pop. Felicity booked them two beach chairs and she settled herself into one while Oliver still stood and stared.

Oliver finally seemed to come to his senses when he started to smirk proudly, "I should have left a matching hickey on the other side of your body but don't worry, I'll work on that tonight."

He pulled off his shirt and sat on the chair next to her. She pulled out a book about French cooking techniques out of her bag and handed it to Oliver. She would need to keep him occupied or he would not let her read her tech magazine in peace.

Half an hour later, she heard Oliver snap the book shut. Before she could look over at him and inquire if he was ok, he had one arm under her leg and another on her upper back lifting her up bridal style.

"Oliver!" she squealed.

"Drop the magazine or it'll get wet too!" he threatened carrying her away from the chair.

"What!" Felicity squeaked, "Oliver you can't be serious."

"I warned you Felicity," he said getting closer to the ocean.

She threw her magazine back towards their chairs. Oliver walked straight to the water with her. A few kids that were playing on the beach watched them like they were crazy. When he was in far enough, he unceremoniously dumped her in the water. Her warm skin was assaulted by the much cooler water.

"It's cold," she spluttered.

He laughed. Felicity glared. She cupped her hand through the water and splashed him with water. He stopped to stare at her when the water landed on him, "Don't start something you can't win," Oliver threatened.

She ignored him and splashed him again. She was already soaking wet. She had nothing to lose. Soon they were in all out water fight. Admittedly, Oliver was able to move much larger volumes of water than her but Felicity liked to think she was more strategic in her strikes and eventually he was just as wet as she was. They frolicked in the water for a while before Felicity decided her fingers had pruned up enough.

Despite the hot burning sun, the soft blowing wind made her feel a bit cold as she walked to her beach chair. She realised with great horror that she had forgotten to pack the beach towels. Oliver suggested that they could walk along the beach to dry off and Felicity linked hands with him and let him lead the way. They watched a few boats out in the distance heading off to the fishing grounds. There were many marinas in town as Cabo San Lucas was known for great fishing tours. She asked Oliver if he wanted to go on one but fishing had never been a major interest of his. He had much better things on shore to take care of.

Felicity thought the food at the hotel catered too much to tourists so she dragged Oliver out in search of the best local restaurant in town. He spoke to a few locals and they compiled a list of restaurants. Each day they would try two, one for lunch and one for dinner. The food was exquisite though some dishes were a bit too spicy for her palette. She might have had to drown herself with water after trying an appetiser with Habanero peppers. She also might have had a bit too much tequila the following night because she found herself skinny dipping on the beach with Oliver an hour later. Not that he particularly minded. It fulfilled one of his many fantasies he wanted to do with her.

Felicity enjoyed their time together, no wedding planning, no investigation, no QC, no in-laws, just them. It reminded her a lot of when they were in Las Vegas together. They had a lot more time then to spend with each other. Maybe they had bitten off more than they could chew with all the projects they were working on but what they were doing was worth it and she was confident that after the wedding, things would settle down again and they would have more time for each other.

**Jul-3**

Felicity recruited Thea and Lyla to visit the caterer she had already selected to make the wedding cake. She had seen this woman's work before at a highfalutin wedding in Las Vegas and she had been very impressed. Her mother had been working the event as a waitress and Felicity was studying in a back room. She got to steal food and drinks if she wanted. She had seen the cake when she arrived with her mother before the guests arrived. Back then, she was only interested in computers but a part of her appreciated the complexity of the design she saw. She had even gotten to sneak into the wedding at the end when most of the guests where drunk and taste the cake. It was exquisite and Felicity made it a point to find out who made that cake in case she ever needed a fancy cake baked for a party. If you told her back then that she would need a cake for her wedding she would have scoffed at you. If you had told her she was marrying the heir to a billion dollar company, she probably would have told you to check yourself into the nearest mental institution. Life really worked in strange ways.

Thea told her that Moira dropped several hints at breakfast that the minimum size for the cake should be at least five tiers. Having denied Moira a large guest list, Felicity was willing to give her the large cake. In fact, Felicity wanted a six tier cake. All of her tiers were to be made from real cake instead of fake Styrofoam covered with icing. She envisioned that they would eat the bottom layer first, and then she would freeze the other five layers. At their next, 5 anniversaries she would pull one layer out and they could enjoy their wedding cake again. Of course five years was kind of pushing it for the viability of the cake but Curtis was working on a method of freezing that wouldn't damage her cake.

The caterer was a lot younger than she expected. She thought the woman would have been much older especially since her first encounter with that wedding cake was over ten years ago but the woman was only in her thirties. She had started her business in her early twenties. One of her parents was a big shot in Hollywood and she was able to use that connection to score some pretty lucrative contracts. She made sure that she used quality ingredients to make her cakes and other baked goods. Her food spoke for itself and eventually she earned a reputation as one of the best wedding cake bakers on the West Coast.

They sat together discussing the design that Felicity wanted. She might be over doing it a bit with the arrows but she followed the style of the invites and had a rim of arrows around the circumference of each layer of cake. She also wanted each layer to represent something in the progress of their relationship.

The bottom layer would have the strip and Bob's bar on it. That was the place they met and had Oliver not been there, she very much doubted that they would have ever met. It was an important milestone in their relationship.

The next layer would have the jukebox, his gym membership, and her charm bracelet. The gym membership and charm bracelet were the first gifts they ever gave each other. The jukebox was reminiscent of her mother and the role she initially played in their relationship.

The third layer was Starling City and QC's logo. This was where they moved to and where they chose to settle down together and build their life. QC was an important part of their life and Felicity felt the need to acknowledge the professional aspect of their relationship since they did work together.

The fourth layer was a blue TARDIS which represented overcoming their adversities. As the tiers progressed, the cakes got smaller so the single blue TARDIS on top didn't look out of place. Oliver would probably be the only one that understood the meaning behind it and she was fine with that.

For the fifth layer, Felicity settled on a question mark representing their mystery location for their wedding and the fact that details of her wedding have been tightly kept under wraps. The question mark could also hold a few other meanings such as who knows what will happen in the future. They had boundless possibilities.

Finally the top tier would have the traditional man and woman getting married. She may have asked the baker to sneak a tablet into the bride's hand that wasn't holding the grooms. She needed to get her technology in there somewhere.

It was unusual for a wedding cake but Felicity liked it. Thea was ecstatic with the idea and Lyla appreciated the meaning behind each layer, the way it represented their journey together. Moira wanted her to go all out, so she did, just not in the way Moira would have wanted.

It was going to take the caterer days to make the marzipan figures she wanted for each layer. The caterer would assemble the cake on location herself and based on her clientele and the weddings she had done, Felicity knew she could trust the woman with the location. She paid her a handsome down payment and promised to see her again on December 4th.

**Jul-4**

There was a knock at the door to the loft and a quick check of the security camera they recently installed revealed it was Roy, shifting his weight from side to side as he waited for her to open the door. Based on the fact that it was early morning on the weekend and he knew Oliver was out running, he had definitely timed his visit to talk to her alone. She hadn't seen him since the incident at the Mansion and she knew both Oliver and Thea had been trying to get in contact with him but he had declined all of their messages.

"Good morning Roy, you didn't bring coffee," she said opening the door and smiling at the younger boy.

"Is it ok if I come in?" he asked uncertainly. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and he was wearing that usual red hoodie of his. The black straps of the backpack Felicity had brought him for his birthday were secured on both shoulders.

"Of course it's ok, even if you forgot the coffee," she said with a soft smile opening the door wider for him to enter.

"You have a fancy machine, I didn't think you needed coffee," he said stepping into the loft.

"Coffee form my favourite shop is always accepted," Felicity replied jovially closing the door behind him.

Instead of walking all the way into the apartment, he only entered far enough for Felicity to be able to close the door. He stood there staring at her. His entire posture screamed that he was apprehensive about being there.

"Roy what's wrong?" Felicity asked concerned.

"Is it ok to be here?" he asked. "Thea and I broke up."

"Roy when I offered to help you it wasn't contingent on Thea being your girlfriend," Felicity explained slowly. She grabbed his hand and started leading him over to the sofa set. "And I know Oliver has been trying to get in contact with you because you need to set a date to get fitted for your tux. Trust me, a tailored suit is much better. Moira would notice if the tux was off in the slightest way."

Roy let out the breath he had been holding and sat down on the sofa. He swung the backpack he had on his back on to the coffee table and pulled out a bunch of documents.

"I've been thinking of starting community college in the fall," he said explaining why he was there and ignoring the part about Oliver and the wedding.

"I thought you were going to start taking a few classes earlier," Felicity stated with a slight frown.

Roy looked a bit embarrassed, "I didn't have the funds to pay for it," he admitted.

"I know you're not going to accept it but I still need to say it, I would gladly pay for your education Roy," Felicity said sincerely. He was a good kid who deserved a break.

He nodded his head acknowledging what she said, "I got most of the paperwork finished but I need to write an essay about myself and I need a recommendation."

"I'll be happy to help you with both things," Felicity said. "But first I need to get some coffee into my system if I want to be able to write anything sensible."

Felicity had reviewed his application form and was about to start writing her recommendation while he drafted his personal essay when the door to the loft opened and Oliver walked in. Roy tensed besides her and Oliver stopped in his tracks as well. Both men stared at each other before Oliver went upstairs. Felicity frowned. Oliver hadn't said a word. A few moments later Oliver came back downstairs with a piece of paper in his hand.

"Roy, since you didn't answer any of my messages, I took the liberty of booking you an appointment with the tailor myself," he said shoving the piece of paper at him. "Be there of you'll have more than one angry Queen to deal with."

"Oliver, you don't have to do this. I understand if you don't want me at the wedding. You only asked me because I was Thea's boyfriend," Roy said.

Oliver sat on the coffee table facing Roy, Felicity would have said something about that if it wasn't for the serious conversation she knew they were about to have. She was getting up to give them some privacy when Oliver's hand shot out to keep her in place.

"Roy, you may have started out as Thea's boyfriend but like a good parasite, you've grown on us. You are my friend Roy. Everyone at the studio misses you, particularly Yao Fei," Oliver revealed.

Roy snorted, "That old man just hates that he has no one to force to hit water and then clean up all the mess at the studio."

A smile tugged at Oliver's face.

"I think Oliver's point is," Felicity said intervening because she sensed they were about to go off topic, "Even though you were Thea's boyfriend, you **are** also our friend and we are not choosing sides. You don't deserved to be shunned and we are not shunning you. Oliver still wants you as his groomsman and I think since you are starting school, you should go back to work at the studio. I'm sure Yao Fei will let you work part time so that you could study."

"Where are you working now?" Oliver asked curiously.

"Actually Tommy gave me a job at the club. It's how I got the money to pay for the first semester. The hours aren't too bad so that I could go to school during the day and work at night," Roy admitted.

Oliver frowned, "I don't remember seeing you at the club."

"You're not usually there and when you do come, you head straight to the VIP area. I work on the main floor," Roy revealed with a shrug. Felicity was proud that Tommy had also seen it fit to help and support Roy.

Oliver nodded absently before he smirked, "Good now that I know where to find you, I expect you to keep that appointment," Oliver said nodding towards the piece of paper he had given him, "Or I'm going to kick your ass in the middle of the club floor."

**Jul -5**

It was close to 9:00pm by the time Felicity was able to drag herself home. She hated preparing for Board meetings. Somehow her department always had to submit the most information. Oliver always made it home before her. Her nose was assaulted with all sorts of delicious smells as she opened the door perking her mood up instantly until her eyes landed on Moira and Robert seated on the other side of the island. In front of them was a wide array of dishes that they appeared to be sampling from. There was chicken alfredo, parmesan chicken, burritos, garlic bread, buffalo wings, meatballs, steak, potato au gratin, salmon tartar, a favourite of his mother's, seafood salad, asparagus, potatoes and a few dishes she didn't even recognise.

"Robert, I believe you are working our daughter-in-law too hard. I do want grandchildren," Moira admonished her husband as she observed the time on her wrist watch.

Felicity almost tripped over her own feet. It was too late at night to be dealing with Oliver's parents. She looked questioningly at him and he gave her a sheepish grin. "Samples of the dishes for the menu," he said in explanation.

She knew his mother had been pestering him about finalising the menu. She also knew Oliver had to fly out to Las Vegas next week to ensure that the building would be ready in time for August inspection. He was going to take the opportunity to go down to the restaurant and talk with Diego, the owner, about the menu. If need be, he was going to show them how to cook the dishes since he didn't know how well they could cook outside of Mexican cuisine. He could have given her a little warning that he had invited his parents over but knowing Moira she probably railroaded him after work.

"You must be hungry dear, the alfredo with the garlic bread is just delightful. We saved you some," Moira offered.

Felicity gracefully took off her high heels, usually she kicked them off and let them land wherever but she couldn't do that with the guests present. She had also wanted to strip and relax in the tub with a few candles but that was also out. She would be stuck in her work clothes a little bit longer. Felicity walked over to the island and sat next to Robert.

"Oliver has agreed to let me supply the dessert. We'll be flying in an array of cheesecakes and tiramisu and I got Jitters to agree to do a relatively small gourmet coffee bar," Moira informed her.

"How are we getting all of that to the location?" Felicity asked horrified. The more things they ordered outside of the restaurant, the greater the chance was that someone would leak the venue.

"Alice and Samantha will handle the cheesecake and tiramisu and Bob and his family will handle the Jitters set up on the day. The menu and bar are taken care of. Next month, I'm test running a few DJs at the club. I'll hire whoever I like," he said before turning to Moira, "So as you can see _Mother_ ," Oliver said stressing the word mother, "I do have my responsibilities for the wedding under control."

Moira eyed him with that same soul searching gaze she used on Felicity, "I hope so. I would hate for Felicity to have gone through so much work to have no food at her wedding," his mother challenged.

"Gosh, with the way you nag, one might think you're my wife instead of my mother!" Oliver snapped at her.

"Eww, mental image Oliver. You're not Oedipus Rex," Felicity stated with her eyes tightly shut.

"Who? Is that another Shakespeare reference?" Oliver asked confused.

"No, I think maybe I should enroll you in the same English Literature class Roy is going to be taking at his community college," Felicity said absently.

"How is Mr. Harper doing?" Moira asked curiously.

"He's good. He would be better if he was with Thea," Felicity openly accused.

Moira sighed, "I did that for her own benefit."

"What Roy wasn't good enough for her?" Felicity spat with a bit of venom.

"What I did had nothing to do with Roy and everything to do with Thea. She was starting to head down the path that Oliver did. She needed to learn to be honest with whoever she chooses as a partner. I thought she would have learned from you two but she was stringing one of those boys along and she needed to know that there are consequences to her actions. A first hand demonstration of how things can blow up in your face was needed."

Felicity jaw nearly hit the counter as Moira gave her explanation.

"You could have just talked to her," Oliver said through his gritted teeth.

Moira scoffed, "And when has talking ever worked with either of my children."

"What you did, involved more than just Thea. You hurt Roy!" Felicity countered.

Moira cast a serious eye on Felicity, "And how do you think Mr. Harper would have felt had he walked in on Thea with Alex because she certainly has spent quite a few nights with him recently. It is best that it happened in a controlled environment," she said defending herself.

"You mean an environment that you manipulated," Oliver corrected bitterly.

"Oliver you may not like your mother's method but she does what she does in your best interest," Robert pointed out.

"I guess I should be thankful that you set my challenge and not her. I can only imagine what I would have gone through if my mother had any involvement in it," Oliver spat walking out of the kitchen, grabbing his motorcycle coat and boots from the cupboard and leaving the apartment.

Felicity stared at the closed door. She hated when he drove angry but she understood why he needed to get out of the apartment. He didn't want to say anything to his parents he couldn't take back. She turned a cool eye on her in-laws, "I think its best you leave now."

Moira nodded but Robert offered to help her clean up.

"It's ok. I'm going to box it up and take it down to the local homeless shelter. They need the food," Felicity said setting about her business while they left. She kept her fingers crossed the entire time that Oliver would return safely. Just as she was about to leave with the boxes, Oliver appeared with an apologetic look on his face and he helped her deliver the food to the shelter.

**Jul –6**

Caitlin was extremely upset about the break-in at her office and the fact that no one had been caught yet. The intruders had used the key card of Caitlin's assistant to gain access to the building and her office. Her assistant had been mugged on her way home and had been at the police station reporting the incident while the robbery took place. Ronnie was just grateful that Caitlin hadn't been in her office when the thieves were there. He didn't know what he would have done if they had hurt Caitlin.

Curtis had gone over every second of security footage from the night and hadn't been able to get a clear picture of the intruders. They turned their head away from every camera in the building. The security guards wouldn't have noticed anything off unless they were following their progress through the building from camera to camera.

Caitlin had since come up with a plan to draw their thief out. She had read through Dr. Binkley's journals thoroughly and she was sure she could replicate his work. If word got out that she was repeating his experiments, which they were sure it would since they clearly had a leak in their facility, the thieves were more than likely to return. They could set a trap for them in the research facility. Felicity and Ronnie didn't approve of the idea at all but Oliver was more receptive to the idea. He flew out with her to discuss the details and the extra security precautions that would only be known to them, that would keep Caitlin safe in the lab. Since Oliver held a high position than Felicity, he overruled her and gave Caitlin the go ahead to start setting up the trap.

After the meeting, they went out to dinner with Ronnie and Caitlin, Curtis and his husband, and Barry and Iris. Oliver was a bit uncomfortable since clearly he could not speak geek but Iris managed to keep the conversation to things that Oliver could follow. Sometime during the night the topic turned to women's high heels and Oliver all too happily revealed that Felicity often tripped over the high heels that she tossed off of her feet in any direction when she got home. Barry indicated Iris did the same thing and related a story about Iris and a particularly strappy pair of heels she had tripped over on the floor that landed her straight into his lap. The two suddenly became great friends. Men were really strange.

**Jul-7**

Felicity didn't see the report live. No, she had to watch the rebroadcast in Starling City an hour later after the report started trending through social media around the country. An investigative reporter based in Coast City, Susan Williams, did a feature on the 7:00pm news in Coast City on the merger between QC and UNDIAC since both the companies were major employers there. The report was supposed to focus on the merger's effects on the citizens in Coast City but somehow the reporter got her hands on the confidential CCPD reports about the robbery at QC Applied Sciences Research Facility in Central City and the possible link to the murder of Dr. Wells.

She used that information to imply that something very corrupt was happening within the company. The reporter listed all of the projects that were supposed to be launched and pointed out that the renewable energy projects had been delayed. She then showed pictures of Felicity meeting with Nyssa Al-Ghul and her lover Sara Lance, who was a known associate of the Queens. She speculated that the considerable delay in the renewable energy projects was because oil tycoon Ra's Al-Ghul was paying to stall the development since renewable energy was not in the interest of his company.

To sensationalise the report even further, she added in speculation that Felicity's and Oliver's relationship was on the rocks because of the robbery and Felicity's inability to run the Applied Sciences Division properly. She showed pictures of Goth Felicity and questioned her credentials to be CTO, implying that she was only appointed in the position because she was Oliver Queen's girlfriend, a girl he picked up at a bar in Las Vegas while he was on sabbatical.

Felicity's temper reached record highs but not because of what the reporter said about her or how she attempted to tarnish the company's reputation. No it was because she outed Sara Lance on national TV going as far as to show Sara and Nyssa locked in an intimate embrace. It was one thing to talk about her but another thing entirely to drag her friend's names through the mud. She tried to call Sara but her friend did not answer. After three attempts she called Nyssa who revealed that Sara was taking some quiet time to herself. Laurel had called a few minutes before and the conversation had been an absolute disaster. Nyssa assured her that Sara was not angry at her and that she would let Sara know that she called. She also stated that her father was very offended by what the reporter said and he would be dealing first hand with Ms. Williams. Nyssa's father was not a person you wanted to cross.

As soon as she got off the phone with Nyssa, the Public Relations manager called. He wanted her to come in at that hour of the night and work on a statement for QC to issue right away, countering everything contained in the report. Felicity really didn't want to leave the comfort of her apartment but she understood the potential impact the report could have on the company. They needed to get on top it right away. Felicity drove herself to the company since Oliver was in Las Vegas. She was grateful that both Robert and Walter were already there working on a release.

Halfway through the process Laurel called and Felicity chose to take the call outside.

"You knew and you didn't tell us," Laurel accused right away.

Felicity wasn't going to lie to her, "Yes, I knew. It was not my place to tell you anything."

"I had a right to know what my baby sister was doing or in this case who," Laurel argued fiercely.

"I am not going to betray Sara's confidence. She wasn't doing anything life threatening," Felicity countered.

"Not life threatening! My sister has been gallivanting across the globe with some Middle Eastern woman. She could be a terrorist for all you know. Next thing, Sara might become a suicide bomber!"

"Laurel don't be ridiculous. That is not the case. Nyssa is an honourable woman and I think it's quite ignorant of you to assume she is a terrorist without talking to her," Felicity said jumping to Nyssa's defense.

"You are the worse friend my sister has. I'm not inviting you to my wedding. Please don't come," Laurel said angrily.

"I don't go where I'm not wanted," Felicity stated, "Good bye Laurel," she said before hanging up the phone.

Felicity's heart went out to Sara. If Laurel was so hostile to her one the phone she could only imagine what the conversation with Sara went like.

**Jul-8**

The next few days were an absolute blur. Oliver wanted to come back from Las Vegas immediately but she forced him to stay. He was not allowed to come back without making sure that the building would be ready for inspection in August, the menu for the wedding was set and the restaurant would be ready in time for the wedding. She couldn't have those projects fall apart too. That would just be too much to bear. She didn't tell him about the conversation with Laurel. She honestly didn't know how to talk to him about it.

Oliver and Tommy, Tommy and Oliver, two names synonymous with each other in Starling City. Tommy was born first, in February and then three months later, Oliver. They grew up together and were always there for each other. In their world, true friendship was hard to come by. Their loyalty to each other was remarkable. She didn't want to be the reason their beautiful friendship came to an end but she knew in her bones that Laurel's ultimatum was going to cause problems.

She needed to find a way to fix things but she honestly didn't know how to. It was her fault that Sara was outed on national TV. She should have paid closer attention to her surroundings and noticed the person taking pictures of them. Diggle had of course tried to tell her that that was his job but she said his job was to protect her from bodily harm, not from prying cameras.

Sara still wasn't taking any calls. She had hidden herself away in some far corner of the world where no one but Nyssa could find her. Felicity desperately wanted to talk to her and apologise but she knew she had to wait until Sara was ready.

She hadn't tried to approach Laurel because there was nothing she had to say to her. She certainly wasn't apologising. If she had to do it all over again, she still wouldn't tell Laurel anything. That left her with no idea how to fix the situation with Laurel, so she was stuck in a mess that was going to adversely affect Oliver and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

**Jul-9**

"Felicity, what is this nonsense I'm hearing about you not being invited to Tommy's wedding?" Oliver asked as soon as he walked through the door to their loft. She was sitting on the couch binging episodes of a new sci-fi drama.

"Laurel is upset I never told her that Sara was seeing Nyssa so she decided I wasn't invited to the wedding," Felicity explained in a neutral tone. She wasn't angry. Her being angry wouldn't help the situation. After all, it was Laurel's wedding and if Laurel didn't want her there then so be it.

Oliver frowned, "That's between Laurel and Sara to sort out. She shouldn't take her anger out on you. Tommy's inviting you to the wedding."

"Oliver, please tell Tommy to leave it alone. I don't want to drive a wedge between them," Felicity said.

"Felicity," Oliver said seriously taking a seat next to her on the couch and holding both of her hands in his, "You can't expect me to attend the wedding without you."

"You are Tommy's best man, you have to go. I will be fine," Felicity pleaded.

"No," Oliver said putting his foot down. "You are my fiancé. I'm not going to the wedding without you."

"Oliver, Tommy is your best friend. What happened to," Felicity said dropping her voice low to sound like a man, "Bros before hoes."

"You most certainly are **NOT** a hoe. You are my other half Felicity. You invite me, I come with my other half. You're only thinking about them but what about us. So you're fine with not going to the wedding but what about every other party that Tommy has that you can't be invited to. Do I leave you for all of those? For heaven's sake Felicity, Tommy and I run a club together, are you not allowed there either?" Oliver asked sarcastically. From the way Oliver's nostrils were flaring, she knew he was very angry about this."That would eventually drive a wedge between us Felicity and I do not want that to happen," he said shaking his head profusely. "No, I'm stating my position from now. No Felicity, No Oliver! And I'll hashtag it if I have too," Oliver threatened. He got up from the couch, collected his suitcase from where he left it by the door and headed upstairs.

A few seconds later, her phone pinged with a message:

# **NoFelicityNoOliver**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.


	9. August

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. I think Tommy might be the star of this chapter.

Felicity had the distinct feeling she wasn't going to enjoy this month. It probably had a lot to do with the fallout from Susan Williams's news report. There were rumours circulating through the company that the Board was extremely unhappy with the bad publicity and a possible shake up of top management was coming. Felicity did her best to ignore the rumours knowing full well that if anyone in top management was to go, it would be her first since she was the one with the overall responsibility for the research facility.

It was also the beginning of August so there was the mandatory visit from Moira that she wasn't looking forward to. Since the blowout in the loft, the Queen matriarch had been keeping her distance from both of them. Family lunch had been cancelled and Thea was beginning to suspect that something was up. The youngest Queen had tried to corner her brother the day before at Yao Fei's studio to find out what was going on. That hadn't quite worked out the way Thea had wanted because Yao Fei had cornered her about what had happened with Roy. Felicity suspected that their visit to the spa that weekend might turn into an interrogation.

Felicity's phone buzzed with a message and she finished off the e-mail she was working on before checking it. It was from Moira.

_Your tent pole for this month is the decorations. That entails the flowers, the layout of the venue, the centrepieces, the type of tables, the type of chairs etc._

It seemed like her future mother-in-law was definitely intent on keeping her distance from them. Felicity wasn't sure what sort of purpose that was serving but she knew there had to be one. Moira definitely didn't do anything without having a purpose behind it. If she wasn't so busy with the wedding, the investigation and her normal work duties she might have had time to sit down and ponder that particular mystery but a memo arrived from the Secretary to the Board declaring the date of the next Board Meeting and Felicity immediately set about the task of preparing the usual documents for said meeting.

**Aug-2**

Felicity returned from her inquisition at the spa with Thea to find Tommy and Oliver waiting for her in the loft. The situation with his wedding had not improved. Laurel was holding firm to the notion that Felicity wasn't welcomed at the wedding and Oliver was holding firm to his hashtag #NoFelicityNoOliver. In fact, that hashtag had started trending on social media. Felicity had traced the leak to one of Laurel's bridesmaids. The gossip channels ran with the story. The LGBT community was outraged that Laurel would treat her sister in such a manner and the bridezilla community defended Laurel's right to invite whoever she wanted to her wedding.

Felicity didn't give a damn about the media. Her concern was the affect that everything was having on Sara, and Tommy's and Oliver's friendship. Though the latter appeared quite fine considering they were both reclined on the sofa with their feet (dirty shoes included) up on her coffee table drinking beer and watching a game on TV.

"Feet off now!" she instructed.

Both men tried to look like scolded puppies but she wasn't buying it. There were rules in this loft that they both needed to abide by. The reluctantly removed their feet and Felicity went to the laundry room to fetch a cloth to wipe down her table. When she finished with the table she sat in the armchair.

"So what's the score?" she asked to make conversation.

"No idea," Tommy admitted tipping back the beer. "Those aren't any of our teams."

"Why are you watching it then?" Felicity asked confused.

"To kill time till you came home," Tommy confessed.

"Tommy, I already said I was fine with Oliver attending the wedding without me. It's Oliver who's refusing to go," she said thinking Tommy came to talk about the wedding.

"I know that and I absolutely agree with Oliver but the wedding isn't entirely what I came to talk to you about," Tommy admitted.

"Why are you here then?" Felicity inquired with a slight tilt of her head.

"I want to plan an intervention between Laurel and Sara, because the only person that can fix this mess is Sara," Tommy declared.

Felicity's eyes bulged open. He had to be kidding. "I'm not sure that is such a good idea," Felicity admitted. She had spoken to Sara once since the incident and their conversation only lasted long enough for Sara to tell her she was ok and she didn't blame Felicity for what had happened.

"Sara has already agreed to come home and talk to her family. Oliver offered the Loft as neutral ground for the conversation to take place," Tommy informed her pleased that his plan was coming along nicely.

Felicity was quite surprised Tommy had been able to convince Sara to come home but she really felt uncomfortable about pushing Sara. "Tommy we really shouldn't be messing with this."

"Felicity, I want you at the wedding but at the same time I want Laurel to be happy. The only way to do that is for Laurel to work out her issues with Sara and realise that she was unfair to you."

"I don't want you to risk your relationship over me," Felicity stated honestly.

"It's not just you Felicity. I also knew Sara was with Nyssa. I was in contact with Sara. About three months into her foray, she was robbed and had no money. She called Laurel's apartment looking for her but got me instead. I was there waiting for Laurel to come home. The jury had come back late in one of her cases and she had rushed off to hear the verdict. Sara claimed she had just called to check in but I could hear something was wrong. I managed to wrangle out of her what happened. I wired money to her on the condition she keeps in touch with me and let me know she's ok. She's Laurel's baby sister and if anything ever happened to her it would rip Laurel apart. I needed to do everything I could to make sure Sara was safe. Every week she sent me an update on her life. It wasn't just you keeping her secrets Felicity. I was as well and I'm going to tell Laurel the truth."

Felicity glanced at Oliver stunned. She hadn't been aware that Tommy was in contact with Sara. From Oliver's face, he had either heard the story already or he was aware of the contact between Tommy and Sara.

"Tommy," Felicity said uncertainly. "I don't think that's such a good idea. Not that I'm encouraging you to withhold things from Laurel but considering how she reacted to me."

Tommy nodded understanding what she was saying, "It is probably the worst idea I have ever had but I can't sit back and watch her go off on you when I did the exact same thing," Tommy said.

"It's time for him to man up and take his responsibilities seriously," Oliver said commenting for the first time since Felicity sat down.

Tommy snorted, "You're one to talk Ollie. You're like Felicity's lap dog," Tommy teased his best friend.

"Tommy, I'll have you know that Oliver is a man's man," Felicity said defending her fiancé.

"A man's man that bends over backwards to please his lady," Tommy countered.

"That is how it should be," Felicity informed him.

Oliver cleared his throat, "As great as it is to hear my best friend and the love of my life debate my masculinity, I think we're going off topic."

Tommy looked at Oliver curiously, "How so?"

"Have you decided how or when you're telling Laurel about this little intervention and your role in it?" Oliver asked.

"Nope, that's why I have you two," Tommy said with a large smile on his face.

Felicity sighed, she was going to need a glass of wine to deal with Tommy.

**Aug-3**

Felicity cursed loudly as the paper cut into her skin. She was trying to slide a rubber band that was securing a stack of papers off the stack and her finger ran along the edge of the paper. Paper cuts were such a pain. She went to the bathroom washed out the cut and came back to the stack of papers that had been secured by the rubber band. She grabbed her scissors from the desk and cut the cursed band off. These were the extra reports submitted by the research lab. The Board had asked for last minute additions to the documents required for meeting the next day. The additions all revolved around the UNIDAC purchase. It had been six months since UNIDAC was acquired and they wanted to see if the acquisition was paying off. Most of her staff at the research facility were working overtime to prepare some of the information.

Walter's department was handling all of the financial analysis. The board had approved the initial purchase of UNIDAC based on a projection that QC would recover the investment within five years. They had to show that they were on track with that projection and that the profitability of QC hadn't been affected by the purchase.

Felicity knew the information requested was a direct result of that irritating news report. Her job was on the line and she was determined to submit all the information requested and defend the progress that had been made thus far at the research facility. She also needed to write a report on the progress of the investigation into the stolen items and the effect it had on the company.

Her phone buzzed and a picture of Oliver came up. She ignored it. She needed to focus and make sure she had all of her ducks in a line. Oliver didn't need to worry. It wasn't like she was the only person in the building. Jerry was there collecting the documents off the printer and getting them in order, Walter and his entire department were reviewing all the calculations and spreadsheets, the legal department was pulling all the patent documents, and Robert was reading all the reports after she officially submitted them. Oliver was really the only one home since the Board hadn't made any unusual requests of him.

Half an hour later, he walked into her office as she was pouring over the latest projections for the launch of one of the renewable energy projects.

"Oliver!" she said startled when he cleared his throat to announce his presence, "What are you doing here?"

"I think you should come home," Oliver stated a bit peeved.

"I have work to do," Felicity replied fanning her hands the length of her desk to show him the mass of reports on it.

"Let your staff finish it. You can sign the reports in the morning. The meeting isn't until the afternoon," Oliver said reasonably.

"No, I am not leaving my staff to work without me. That isn't fair to them," Felicity replied angrily.

"We both know you've already given them Friday and Monday off so they could enjoy a long weekend to make up for the late night they're pulling tonight. You are the one that has to answer the Board's questions tomorrow and you need to be coherent to do that," Oliver replied angrily.

"I'll be fine, Oliver. I know what I'm doing," Felicity snapped.

"Felicity," Oliver sighed.

"No Oliver, I'm not going anywhere," Felicity insisted.

"I should get Mr. Dennis removed from the Board for this," Oliver muttered.

Felicity looked up at Oliver horrified, "You will do no such thing. You know the Board is the only voice that the minority shareholders have. Just because you are a Queen doesn't mean you can abuse your power like that Oliver."

"Fine Felicity. Stay here. Do whatever. I'm going home," Oliver walked out angrily.

**Aug-4**

By lunch time the next day (and four cups of coffee) Felicity had all of the documents in order. All of her reports were signed and approved and officially submitted to the Secretary for the Board. She had just enough time to run home, take a quick shower and change before the board meeting. She was seated in one of the chairs that lined the back wall of the board room when the members walked in. All of the reports had been uploaded to their tablets but there was one signed hard copy in the centre of the table for members that wished to view a hard copy.

They started with the minutes of the previous meeting before going into matters arising and then the normal agenda for the meeting. The Russia subsidiary was up for review and Felicity nearly choked when Oliver volunteered to go to Russia for a week to conduct the review himself. That meant he would be gone for a whole week. That would be the longest they would have ever been apart since she moved to Starling City. He couldn't be serious could he? But he was very serious because the Board dismissed him to start preparations for the trip.

Once the main agenda items were completed, they moved on to the special agenda item which was a thorough review of the UNIDAC purchase and future projects for the Research Facility. Walter went first with all his fancy line graphs and acronyms for profit before tax and profitability ratios. The Board was very pleased with the current financial performance despite the setback in the renewable energy projects. It was now Felicity's turn to show that they could not only keep up with the current performance but surpass it. She decided to take bull by the horn and started with the most contentious projects first.

The Board had several questions about those projects and the reasons for the delays, especially if any outside companies had any role in the delays. They spent two hours grilling her on those three projects alone and Felicity tried very hard to remain patient and calm through the processes. She just needed to get through those and then she could move on to the other more successful projects. When she reached the last part of her report about future projects, she wheeled a young girl into the board room,

"Everyone this is Kerry. She's from Central City. She was in a serious car accident that left her in a coma for three months. When she awoke it was confirmed that she was paralysed from the waist down. Her upper body and arms were weak and she needed physical therapy. She works with Paul Holt, husband of our leading designer at the Research Facility, Dr. Curtis Holt. The two came up with an idea to use our battery as a source of power for medical devices. Dr. Holt is designing a chip that can be implanted in her back, for her to walk again. It would be a significant breakthrough in the treatment of paralysis," she said.

Felicity then played her ace and asked the young girl to speak. Whatever objections the Board might have had to the significant cost of medical research vanished with the young girl's story and her dreams of one day being able to walk again. After Felicity's presentation was finished, the Board recessed for dinner and Felicity was called back in, an hour later.

"Ms. Smoak you have certainly answered all of our questions and provided us with even more information than we requested," Mr. Dennis, Chairman of the Board, stated. "I would like to offer you a new position within the company, Vice President – Technology."

Felicity was shocked and it took her a moment to find her voice, "How is that any different to Chief Technical Officer?" Felicity asked confused.

"We're separating the strategic planning aspect of the job. The new CTO will do the actual oversight on the projects while the Vice President will determine the future of each project and the partnerships that we enter into. The CTO will be based in Central City and it will reduce your need to go out there. The new position would go hand in hand with Oliver's position of Vice President – Operations. It will also be great PR, both Oliver and Felicity Queen running the company."

"So you're only promoting me because I'm going to be Felicity Queen," Felicity asked irritated.

"Not at all. I came here today prepared to take three courses of actions, leave you in your current job, demote you back to the cyber-security department, or promote you to Vice-President. As you must be able to conclude, you have suitably impressed us that we voted to promote you. Congratulations Ms. Smoak, you're the newest Vice President at Queen Consolidated."

Robert and Walter stood and offered her a round of applause. Several congratulations were issued by board members but she felt hollow inside. The one person she wanted to congratulate her most wasn't in the room. When Felicity got home, she received a text from Oliver stating that he was about to take off and he would see her in a week when he got back from Russia.

**Aug-5**

The PR department released the official news that she had been promoted to Vice-President and there was a nice photo shoot of her with Robert and Walter. The latest report from Caitlin indicated that she had a break through recreating Dr. Binkley's formula and she was testing it on the rats. They were stronger and faster but Ronnie was quick to point out that they were also more violent towards one another and addicted to the formula. Caitlin was working on tweaking the formula to remove the violent side effects. So far there were no signs of any unusual activity around Caitlin's lab. Everything seemed very secure.

Oliver had been gone for two days and she had a total of two texts from him. He was really mad at her. One was to say that he had landed safely in Russia and the other to congratulate her on her promotion. She had sent him multiple texts. She apologised several times but they all went unanswered. Life without Oliver in the loft with her was quite dull, cold and empty. She found a little bit of comfort in curling up on the couch with a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream and one of Oliver's suit jackets buttoned around her. If she closed her eyes and inhaled, she could faintly smell his cologne mixed with his musky scent, and she could pretend she was cuddled in his arms.

She also realised that her culinary needs were satisfied by Oliver. She was forced to download a bunch of takeout menus on her tablet. She had Chinese yesterday and Thai the day before that. She was debating between good old fashion pizza, sushi or Mediterranean when she was interrupted by knocking at her door. Really, feeding herself should feel like much less of a challenge. She managed to feed herself for years before she met Oliver. The knocking persisted and she dragged herself away from the couch to answer it. A quick check at the security monitor in the kitchen revealed it was Tommy at the door. Maybe Oliver had sent him to check up on her.

"Tommy what are you doing here?" Felicity asked opening the door.

"I finally told Laurel the truth and she kicked me out. The wedding is off," he said as he made his way dejectedly to the couch with a rollie behind him.

Felicity exhaled. Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse. "I'll get the guest room prepared for you. I was about to order take out is there anything you would like?" she asked.

Tommy's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, "Take out? I thought Oliver banned that."

"He did. But he isn't here to enforce the ban and I need to eat so unless he wants to return and find me dead, I need to order take out," Felicity explained.

"Wait Oliver isn't here?" Tommy asked looking around as if expecting Oliver to suddenly jump out at him from behind a couch.

"No he's in Russia reviewing the subsidiary there," Felicity told him as she closed the door.

"And he didn't take you with him?" Tommy further asked the suspicion that something was wrong was slowly building.

Felicity, however, was beginning to lose her patience with Tommy, "No," she responded in a clipped tone.

Tommy seemed to finally sense her mood and backed off, "Ok I guess you'll have to do then. I like to drown my sorrows in cheap scotch so when you pick up our dinner, make sure and pick up the liquor too," he advised kicking back on the couch and closing his eyes.

"Excuse me?" Felicity asked crossing her hands over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.

He cracked one eye open to look at her, "I'm a heart broken fella," he said.

"You're a heart broken fella that's going to go down to the expensive Italian restaurant and order half the menu to go," she ordered. "I'll have the ice cream and liquor ready when you return and we can both drown ourselves in our sorrows."

"Geez, since you've become Madame Vice-President, you're really bossy," Tommy quipped.

Felicity rolled her eyes, "Just get moving Merlyn. I'm hungry and trust me, you don't want to see me when I'm starving!"

**Aug –6**

Having lived with Tommy in Las Vegas before she knew what to expect from him. She knew he wasn't a morning person and like her the coffee had to be ready as soon as he reached downstairs. The problem was there was no Oliver to prepare the coffee for them so they spent most of the pre-coffee time snapping at each other. They both knew they didn't mean it and anything said pre-coffee didn't count. The first day Tommy was there, Felicity had to practically drag him out of bed and force him to go to work. The media had yet to pick up on the Merlance breakup and Felicity was grateful for that. Tommy was using humour to deflect and put on a brave mask but she knew how much he was hurting.

Tommy wasn't fond of wine, but Laurel was. Every evening Tommy sat down with a glass of Laurel's favourite wine and stared at it. He never drank it. He would sometimes pick it up and smell the fruity scent. He would close his eyes and let the scent remind him of Laurel. She caught a tear or two slide down the side of his face. She usually turned away and looked at her tablet. When his facial hair started to make him look like a Yeti, she forced him to shave.

Oliver sent her a brief message to explain that the review was taking a lot longer than he thought and he wouldn't be home for another week. He ended the message with an 'I love You' so she knew he had gotten over his anger. She responded that she loved him and missed him. She didn't tell him about Tommy. She didn't want him to feel guilty that he wasn't here for his best friend. It just meant that she had to put up with Tommy's antics by herself for another week.

"Tommy what on earth are you doing to that book!" Felicity exclaimed horrified to see Tommy stamping on _To Kill a Mocking Bird_ when she came down the stairs to get breakfast. She could smell the coffee so she knew he had coffee in his system already.

"I told Roy that I had some of the books on his school book list hanging around the house but they weren't in great condition because I never took care of them when I was in college," he replied as he focused on the book beneath his feet.

"I'm not quite following how that has to do with you disrespecting that book," Felicity said. It was too early in the morning to try to figure out Tommy.

"Roy's booklist for his courses is as long as my arm and do you know how expensive books are! He's trying to buy second hand books but the ones in the campus book store sell out as soon as they get them, which means they sold out in May. I know how much Roy makes. Paying for school, living expenses and books is near impossible. If I offered to buy him his books, he won't accept it but if I make it sound like he's doing me a favour by getting rid of the books for me, he'll take it," Tommy said proud of his sneakiness.

"So I'm guessing you have none of the books on his list which meant you had to buy them brand new and then make them look like they had been used by a disrespectful playboy," Felicity surmised heading over to the coffee machine and pouring herself a cup.

"Exactly, now take that copy of _The Catcher in the Rye_ , and fold a few dog ears into it," Tommy ordered.

Felicity smirked, "You know you could have asked the school to give him a book scholarship funded by you."

"What?" he asked looking up from the book before something dawned on him, "Wait that scholarship that he got to pay part of his tuition came from you!"

Felicity nodded her head proudly, "Yeap, I'm paying for five students from the Glades to further their education and the school was willing to let me remain anonymous," she said proudly.

"Why didn't' you just give him a full scholarship?" Tommy asked.

"Because with Roy's grades he never would have qualified for a full scholarship and he knows it. He would have suspected something fishy was going on. In fact, none of the students I'm paying for had great grades. They're all kids looking for a second chance and trying to improve themselves," she told him.

Tommy nodded, "Ok, next semester, we'll expand your scholarship to include books paid for by me but in the meantime, get to work on that book."

**Aug-7**

Felicity needed to work on Moira's tent pole for the month so since Oliver wasn't there she started going to flower shops during her lunch break and after work. Of course she assumed there would still be a wedding and whenever Oliver got back she could apologise in person and things would be ok again. She didn't want to drag Tommy into any wedding preparation stuff since Laurel had called off theirs but he had taken it upon himself to go with her after work. A paparazzi had seen them together at one of the stores and taken their picture together. That set off a media frenzy that they were cheating on their respective partners. Laurel took advantage of that media storm to officially announce that their wedding had been called off and the speculation ran rampant going as far as to claim that Felicity was pregnant with twins, one child being Oliver's and the other being Tommy's.

Felicity was just thankful that Oliver was out of the country and he wouldn't be seeing any of this nonsense. She decided to focus on the wedding planning. She settled on having one head table with six people and then eleven round tables that seated nine people each. The dance floor would be in the air condition tent along with the coffee bar, cake and buffet. She decided on white tables clothes with a green satin runner and white chair covers with a green satin tie. The flowers would be green calla lilies and white roses. Curtis had asked to design the centrepieces. It was going to be something very techy with lots of lights and sensors. He told her to trust him, it would look great so she trusted him.

Lights were going to be strung around the ceiling, a fountain was going to be set up outside the restaurant and flowers would be placed on the railing of the veranda. She was putting Oliver in charge of all the onsite preparations. Felicity was going to order everything through the restaurant so the Queen name didn't show on anything.

**Aug-8**

Felicity couldn't stop fiddling with the TARDIS charm as she waited for Oliver to arrive. It was supposed to represent them triumphing over adversities but it very much felt at the moment that the adversities were wining. Since his last text with the 'I love you' she hadn't received a single one. She had heard from Robert when he was returning and she planned an elaborate apology for him. She sent Diggle to the airport to pick him up. Her bodyguard had strict instructions to bring him to the warehouse she was currently standing in.

She had all the lights off so it was pitch black. When the door opened, it cast light into the warehouse and Felicity flipped on the lights.

"Surprise," she said a bit meekly to Oliver. She wasn't sure if he would be happy to see her.

Diggle had dropped him off and left. He would be back in about three hours for them. Oliver looked stunned and confused as he surveyed her and the warehouse.

"I'm sorry," Felicity said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you."

Oliver closed the distance between them and drew her into a hug. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have just picked up and gone to Russia. It was so terrible without you and I broke my phone too. Dropped the damn thing while trying to text you, while I had coffee in my hand."

Felicity snuggled against his chest. He felt like home.

"What is all this?" he asked.

Felicity pulled away slightly from him to look up at his face, "This is my apology."

"Your apology?" he repeated.

"Hmm," she said nodding her head up and down. "Your bow is over there. You have exactly the amount of arrows needed to complete this course. Yao Fei helped me set it up. It's very difficult. Lots of moving targets and tennis balls. You'll enjoy it."

"Right now I'm enjoying hugging you," he admitted squeezing her a bit to emphasise his point.

"You can hug me for as long as you want. We have three hours before Diggle comes back," she said.

"You didn't by chance set up a bed here, did you?" he murmured in her ear.

She giggled, "Sorry."

Oliver reluctantly pulled away, "Guess I'll have to redirect the energy elsewhere," he said walking over to the case that held the bow and opened it. His head snapped back to her. "This is new!"

"Yes," Felicity said with a large smile. "I had it custom made for you," she said nervously as he took the bow out of the case and inspected it. "Well did I get it right?"

"It's perfect," he said.

"Great you no longer need to borrow Yao Fei's. The course starts over there," Felicity said pointing to the far corner of the room. "Have fun," she said walking to stand behind a shield of reinforced glass, just in case Oliver did miss a target.

She watched amazed as Oliver worked his way through the course quickly and precisely. She enjoyed the way his muscles tensed as he drew back the bow. His laser focus on his targets sent thrills of excitement through her. She really should have included a bed somewhere.

"That's it?" he asked confused when he was finished. He had one more arrow left but no visible target.

"One more challenge," Felicity said walking out of her protective case to stand in front of it. Oliver was exactly 100 yards away. She placed a red apple on her head. "Shoot the apple," she commanded.

"FELICITY!" Oliver protested.

"Come on, Oliver. I trust you. You hit much hard targets than this," she said squeezing her eyes shut tightly. Yes she trusted him but she didn't want to look at him pointing an arrow at her.

"If you trust me so much, why are your eyes closed?" He asked. She detected a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Because Yao Fei said that I had to make sure not to move an inch. He stressed that repeatedly. So I thought it best to keep my eyes shut so that I won't be tempted to move when you pull…" she was stopped by the sound of the arrow slicing through the apple on her head. "Hey, I wasn't finished talking yet mister," she said peaking one eye open to see him with his arms down, bow at his side, a wide grin on his face.

"I thought it best to shoot while you were distracted," he said with a cheeky grin striding up to her and pulling her in for a hot kiss.

"God I missed you," he said when they broke apart.

"I missed you too," she replied rubbing noses with him.

"Let's head home and celebrate your new appointment to Vice-President," he said in a husky tone.

"Uh about that," Felicity fidgeted.

"Don't tell me you tried to cook and burned down the apartment?" he asked seriously.

"No that isn't it," she said slapping his forearm. "Tommy's staying with us. As expected his talk with Laurel didn't go so well."

"Oh," Oliver said with a frown. "How is he? He didn't tell me anything."

"Well he didn't want to interrupt your time in Russia and he knew we were kind of fighting too so he said he would settle for me taking up your responsibilities," she said with a small shrug.

"Felicity I know I've been gone two weeks and we have a lot of catching up to do but I think I need to have a serious conversation with Laurel and I'm going to have it today," he said.

Felicity chewed on her bottom lip, "Ok, I guess I'll just go home to Tommy."

Oliver growled low in his throat, "Don't ever say that. You're going home to our loft where Tommy so happens to be staying in the guest room," Oliver rephrased for her.

Felicity smiled and reached up on her tip toes to kiss him. They called Digg to come for them and Oliver was dropped off at the apartment tower that housed what was Tommy's and Laurel's apartment. Felicity headed home where she found Tommy on the couch with two beers and a glass of wine.

"Where is Oliver?" Tommy asked the panic written all over his face. She knew he was concerned about her relationship with Oliver

"Relax," Felicity said taking a seat opposite him and picking up the glass of wine. "We're fine. He went to try and talk some sense into Laurel."

"Oh, I guess that means I can drink his beer too," Tommy joked but she could see the brief feeling of hope that passed across his face before he clamped down on his emotions.

Felicity's phone buzzed with a message from Oliver.

_This is going to take a lot longer than I thought._

_Laurel is completely drunk._

_I don't want to leave her alone for the night._

_I'll see you tomorrow._

"What's wrong now?" Tommy groaned.

"Laurel's drunk and Oliver's concerned," Felicity said.

"Oh, Quentin told me she had been hitting the bottle a bit hard since our breakup but there was nothing I could do about it. You know she won't even take my calls," Tommy admitted sadly.

"Tommy, Oliver will find a way to reach her. I'm sure of it."

**Aug-9**

Felicity watched Sara pace the length of the loft as she waited for her family to arrive. Despite Oliver's talk with Laurel, they still weren't sure if she would come. She and Nyssa had arrived two days before and Tommy had been thrown out of the guest room onto the couch, even though he claimed that the bed was big enough for the three of them. The plan was for Sara to talk to her family alone and once things seemed ok she would introduce them to Nyssa. Oliver, Felicity and Tommy would just stick around long enough to make sure the conversation started and then they would leave the apartment.

Sara's pacing stopped the moment there was a knock on the door. Her eyes found Felicity's immediately and Felicity gave her a reassuring smile. Oliver made his way to the door and he let Captain Lance and his wife Dinah in.

"Baby," Captain Lance said happily walking over to draw Sara into a tight hug.

"You're not angry with me?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, we're not darling," Dinah said joining their hug. "We just want to know why you felt you couldn't tell us."

Sara looked away sadly, "I thought you wouldn't love me anymore," she admitted.

Dinah pulled her daughter to face her, "Sara you listen to me. I don't care what your sexual orientation is, you are my daughter and I will always love you. Your father and I wish you would come home, but if you're happy out there, we're not going to force you to come back or change who you are."

There was another knock at the door and everyone seemed to hold their breath as one as Oliver opened the door to reveal Laurel. She walked in, crossed her hands over her chest and shifted all of her weight onto one foot, "so talk," she said. It was clear form her body language, she was going to be difficult. She didn't once stop to look at Tommy who was perched on a stool by the island. Felicity could see the pain reflected in Tommy's eyes at Laurel's rejection.

"We'll just get going now," Felicity said walking over to the door. She heard the bar stool shift and knew Tommy was making his way to the door too.

"Tommy I think you should stay," Sara called out.

"Why this is a Lance family meeting?" Laurel replied angrily.

"Because Tommy is a part of this family," Sara snapped at her sister. "I'm not letting you give up the best thing in your life because you're being stubborn. We are going to sit down and work through all of our issues together. And you Laurel," Sara said pointing at her sister, "will learn that when you have a partner that loves you as much as Tommy does, you don't throw that away."

"What about your girlfriend?" Quentin asked curiously. "Is she here?"

"She's upstairs but I think we need to work through this first before I invite her down to join us," Sara admitted.

That was the last thing Felicity heard as she closed the door to the loft. She looked up at Oliver, "It's just us now."

"I wonder what we shall do?" he said wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"No hotels," Felicity stated firmly.

Oliver deflated, "You're being mean."

"How about a game of laser tag?" she offered with a teasing smile. He had actually lost to her the last time they played but that was because she hacked the system. He didn't know that though.

He cheered right back up, "I'm beating you this time."

**Aug-10**

Two days later Felicity was waiting for Oliver in their bedroom, while she looked over the latest design plans for the medical chip. All of their house guests had left, Sara and Nyssa went to Dubai and Tommy returned to his apartment with Laurel. Thankfully that wedding was back on and plans were proceeding full steam ahead for their October wedding. Whatever Sara had said to Laurel worked because Felicity was invited to the wedding again. The invitation had even come with an apology for being such, "A raging bitch" to her. Felicity humbly accepted the apology. The two of them would never be great friends but they could tolerate each other for the sake of Oliver, Tommy and Sara.

As much as she enjoyed having their friends stay with them, it was very nice to have the loft to themselves again. She didn't have to worry about how Tommy would feel if he caught her cuddling with Oliver on the sofa and she could walk around in whatever state of dress she pleased.

The door to their bedroom slammed open startling her, tearing a small scream from her throat.

"Sorry," Oliver said sheepishly, "I didn't realise you were in here."

"I was waiting for you," Felicity admitted.

Oliver threw himself on the bed and placed his head in her lap. Felicity put her tablet on the bedside table and started running her hand through Oliver's hair. He loved when she did that and it usually calmed him down.

"That feels good," he mumbled snuggling closer to her.

"Talk to me Oliver," she encouraged him.

"The official who has to approve the apartments ready for occupation wants a bribe," Oliver admitted sourly.

"What!" Felicity screeched. The calm peaceful state she had been evaporated immediately.

"He says we can afford it," Oliver told her.

"I don't care if we can afford it or not, it's the principle. If it meets code you pass it. If it doesn't you fail. Money shouldn't be involved," Felicity retorted angrily.

"The project literally rests in his hands," Oliver hopelessly pointed out.

"Report him, take it up the line, call the Governor, if you have to leak a tape of him requesting a bribe to the media do it. I mean I'm sure there are at least eight paparazzi that live outside the gates of the Queen Mansion. Or better yet, talk to Iris. She'll rip him to pieces. She would love a chance to do an investigative piece like that," Felicity suggested angrily.

She hated when people tried to take advantage of the Queen name. Oliver's great-grandfather worked very hard to earn what the family had. It was passed down through the generations and it grew and prospered because of the careful attention of each generation. Yes, Oliver was born rich but he was also burdened with keeping the legacy going. They were not going to pay any bribe for their building to be approved. They would push back the launch date and wait for proper approval.

**Aug-11**

Felicity had been trying to get in contact with Caitlin and Ronnie for the last four hours. They weren't at work and hadn't called in sick. The advertisement for a new Chief Technical Officer was officially released today and she wanted to let them know that they could apply for the job if they wished. There was a two week deadline for the submission of applications. HR would short list the best applicants and the first round of interviews would be held via skype with the HR manager. The top ten applicants would then have a technical interview via skype after which the list would be cut down to three possibilities. Those candidates would then have a final interview at the research facility in Central City at the end of September.

Felicity called Barry and asked him to swing by their apartment during his lunch break, which considering Barry really enjoyed his job, could be any time after 2:00pm. Iris was in Las Vegas so there was no one to push him to eat. At 4:30pm, Barry called her.

"Felicity, I think we have a big problem," he said.

Felicity felt her stomach drop at his words.

"Ronnie and Caitlin were forcibly removed from their apartment. We don't know where they are."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about this story. Excluding the prologue (December – The Proposal), I wanted all of the chapters in this story to be between 2,500-3,000 words, nice short chapters. That didn't happen. They are all over 4000 words and the chapters keep getting longer and longer!
> 
> For those of you that read Lessons Learnt, that will be updated next week.


	10. September

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow.
> 
> I really need to apologise for the extremely long wait. It was very difficult to focus on this chapter.
> 
> We finally reach the conclusion of the Machin arc in this chapter.
> 
> Oh and keep a tissue close by just in case. September is the anniversary of a significant event in Felicity's life.

**Sep-1**

They had been in Central City for three days and had heard nothing from the people that had kidnapped Ronnie and Caitlin. Felicity was well aware that the longer someone was missing, the stronger the odds grew that they would be found dead. She felt like there was a giant ticking clock over her head and every time the second hand moved her foreboding grew. All she kept hearing from the police station was that they were making every effort to find them. Three times she had picked up the morning paper in Central City and three times her heart clenched in her chest when there was an unidentified body found the night before. A quick call to Barry confirmed it wasn't Caitlin or Ronnie.

She finally decided she couldn't wait on CCPD any longer and dragged both Oliver and Digg to Barry's office. The forensic scientist had a large white board in his office that was dedicated to the case. He had words written up in marker all across the board accompanied by taped photographs of people and evidence. He drew different coloured lines between the different names and photos. Some were red lines, some blue lines and some black lines. Some photographs and names were connected by multiple lines. Felicity tried to understand the logic behind the board but the entire thing look like a large mess to her. Probably only Barry understood what it meant.

She was positive they were missing something and the answer was on the board somewhere but with the way the information was currently displayed she couldn't see it. Perhaps a new approach was needed. The case had been going on for months and the layout on this board hadn't helped Barry solve it. It was time to start over. Felicity walked up to the board and started taking everything down.

"What are you doing?" Barry asked in a panic running over to the board and taking the pictures she had removed out of her hand.

"Taking everything down," she said as if it was obvious.

"Felicity, I worked months on that board," Barry said anger starting to seep into his voice.

"No offense Barry but it's kind of a mess. I can't think properly with clutter," Felicity chided and she turned back to the board to grab the remaining pictures.

Both Oliver and Diggle started to laugh behind her before they turned it into a cough when she glared at them.

"I'm hoping a fresh start will cast some new light on this case," she said handing the rest of the pictures to Barry and picking up the lonely eraser from the base of the white board to remove the lines and words.

When the board was clear, she stared at the empty space.

"Well?" Barry asked his tone laced with irritation.

She cast a glance at him to see him standing off to the side with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His face said he was very angry. He was angry because she had disturbed his work. Her action led to his anger, cause and effect.

"Where are the markers? I think I know where to start," she asked her brain running a mile a minute as dots started connecting in her brain.

Barry stomped over to his desk, opened the draw and pulled out a black dry erase marker. "Catch," he said throwing the marker over in a slow arc. Felicity tried to catch it but fumbled and dropped it.

"Opps," she said stooping down to pick it up, "I was never good at catching anything in high school. That's why they called me Butterfinger Smoak," she joked before looking up to see three blank faces staring back at her, "Which none of you needed to know."

She turned back to the board and in the top left hand corner, which she could barely reach, she wrote military.

"Military?" Digg asked. "What has the military got to do with this?"

"The Military started this. They were the ones that wanted a super solider formula," she said before drawing an arrow from the word military to the right and writing the word UNIDAC at the head of the arrow.

"I had all that on my board Felicity," Barry complained.

"Be patient my Padwan, I know where I'm going with this," Felicity said. "UNIDAC won the bid and Dr. Binkley started the project. We know three months ago he reached the point where he was ready for human trials," Felicity said drawing another arrow to the words human trials.

"Yes we know all that but you're forgetting Dr. Wells," Barry pointed out.

"I'm not finished and Dr. Wells is not important yet," she said.

From human trials she drew a line to Lonnie Machin and then a line to Dr. Binkley.

"Wait, why is Binkley after Machin?" Oliver asked confused.

"I suspected that Dr. Binkley might have run his own human trails yet there was no evidence of it at the research facility or Star Labs or anywhere else that Binkley visited, so what if it wasn't a full scale trial? What if he tested in on the security guard who did his rounds around the facility at night? We know from the rats that Caitlin tested the formula on, that violence was a side effect. What if Dr. Binkley gave Machin the formula and Machine destroying the lab was a side effect of the formula?" she postulated.

"That still doesn't tell me why Binkley is after Machin on the board?" Oliver responded his eyes focused on the white board.

"We have assumed up until now, that Binkley packed up and left," Felicity started to explain excitedly. She could see the pieces coming together before her.

"That's not an assumption that's a fact," Barry said walking over to the stack of pictures he had put on his desk from the white board and pulling out a photo of Binkley's resignation letter that had been submitted to UNIDAC.

"No you're assuming he wrote that and he wasn't forced to write that. What if Machin wanted a cure to the serum or he was addicted to it and needed more? That's why Dr. Binkley disappeared and that is why they needed lab equipment from the research facility," Felicity said drawing an arrow to the word theft.

"Felicity," Barry said, "Don't take this the wrong way but there's no proof to support that theory."

"I think there might be. In my first threat, there was a human finger. I'm going to ask Curtis to run the DNA results from SCPD against the DNA profile we have on file for Dr. Binkley."

"You think that was Dr. Binkley's finger?" Diggle asked.

"Yes. When SCPD ran tests on it they didn't get any hits in the criminal database and the analysis of the tissue revealed the finger had been severed while the person was still alive," Felicity recounted. She was still standing by the white board with the maker in her hand waving it through the air as she spoke animatedly.

"You still have not accounted for Dr. Wells's death," Barry pointed out.

"After the theft, we started doing background checks and Curtis mentioned Machin which led us to Binkley and Wells. What if Machin didn't know Wells was involved until we exposed that link? What if he thought Wells could help him with whatever they were doing and he confronted Wells. Much like what happened with Binkley, Wells refused to help but Machin had grown increasingly unstable because of the serum and instead of just causing property damage this time, he killed Dr. Wells," Felicity postulated adding the connection to Wells on the board.

"So then you think that when you asked Caitlin to replicate Dr. Binkley's work, Machin found out and took her. Ronnie was just collateral damage," Oliver said finishing her thoughts for.

"Exactly," Felicity said beaming at her fiancé.

"But that brings us back to there being an inside man. Machin couldn't have discovered that all on his own without help. Plus there is the fact that they took Caitlin from home, not the lab. They knew the lab was a trap," Digg pointed out.

Felicity chewed on her bottom lip, "I know but I don't know who it is," Felicity admitted.

Diggle looked at the board, "We need to determine everyone that had access to the information at these points," he said his finger pointing on the words, Theft, Wells, and Caitlin.

"I think first we need to get the DNA test done to support this," Barry suggested.

Felicity nodded and pulled out her phone to call Curtis and Detective Lance.

**Sep-2**

Detective Lance agreed to release the profile and it was sent via e-mail to Curtis and Felicity. Half an hour later, Curtis sent her a message confirming that the finger she had been sent belonged to Dr. Binkley. At this point Barry forgave her for messing with his white board.

"There's something else that doesn't make any sense either," Diggle mused and everyone turned to him.

"What?" Felicity asked.

"If Machin was unstable and he cut Dr. Binkley's finger off to send it to you as a threat, how come he never followed through with any more serious threats?" Diggle asked.

Oliver frowned, "I hate what you're suggesting but it's true. The threats die down instead of escalating which implied someone else stepped in to control him."

"Maybe Dr. Binkley was able to create something to counteract the violent tendencies?" Barry suggested.

"Yes but Felicity would have still been a threat. Even if he was calmer, the threat Felicity posed was still the same," Diggle pointed out.

"Unless he found another way to mitigate that threat," Oliver suggested.

"I certainly don't feel mitigated," Felicity pointed out.

"The inside man that's working with Machin was somehow able to assure him that you posed no threat," Diggle said in thought. "I think in order to find Caitlin we need to stop focusing on Machin's whereabouts. We need to focus on the inside man. Finding that person will lead us directly to Machin."

Barry picked up the eraser and happily started erasing Felicity's work.

"Hey," she protested.

"This served its purpose Felicity. It's time to do a new one to find the inside man," Barry stated with glee.

Felicity grumbled under her breath. She was proud of her white board solution to that bit of the puzzle but Caitlin's life was at stake so she needed to focus on finding the inside man.

**Sep-3**

Felicity was staring at the white board. Diggle had taken charge of this part of the investigation as finding the inside man fell under his tenure with security. He divided the white board into three columns that marked each time they knew than an inside man had helped Machin. There was the original break in, the information about Wells, and the theft from Caitlin's office. Diggle then listed every person outside of their inner circle that had access to the information. None of the names overlapped and the evidence kept pointing to someone in their inner circle but Felicity was sure that no one had betrayed them.

"Felicity," Oliver asked, "We're looking at all the people that we know had access to our information but what if someone hacked it?"

"I already checked that. Our system is secure. No data has been accessed by an outside party," Felicity said a bit miffed. She had built a fantastic cyber-security system for the company. No one was getting in without her knowing about it.

"Ok, what if the inside man has official access to the systems and could pull up the information?" Oliver queried further.

Felicity stared at the board, "I suppose someone in IT could but not just anyone could access the data for Executive Management. They would need managerial... Oh My God, Brie," Felicity said. "Brie came across from UNIDAC."

"I did her background check myself," Diggle said. "She was clear."

"But she could access everything," Felicity said. "She could access it and make it look like no one did. Theoretically she could also plant a Trojan horse on my system to keep track of what I was doing. That would be the equivalent of mitigating me, no?" she asked Diggle with a slight tilt of her head.

"What is her connection to Machin?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know?" Felicity admitted. In truth she didn't really know Brie that well.

"I think we should ask Detective Lance to search Brie's apartment in Starling City," Diggle suggested.

"I can get Joe to recommend the search as part of CCPD's case. That should make it easier for him to get the official search warrant," Barry said before running quickly out of the room.

"That kid's fast. Here one moment, gone the next," Diggle said staring at the empty space Barry used to occupy.

**Sep-4**

Detective Lance got the warrant fairly easily and gathered his team to conduct the search. Felicity paced the floor of Barry's office while she waited for news. She hoped that Caitlin and Ronnie would be found safe there. Oliver tried to get her to sit and relax but as soon as her butt touched the chair she jumped up and started pacing the room again.

There were so many awful scenarios that were running through her head. What if Brie looked out the window and saw them and then they held Caitlin and Ronnie hostage? What if they shot the hostages and ran out the back? What if they ran out the back with the hostages before the police entered? What if they weren't even there and this was a dead end? What if she had sent the police after her head of cyber-security and Brie was actually innocent? What type of lawsuit would Brie file against her?

The phone to the office rang and Barry answered it. He put it on speakerphone.

"Detective Lance we are all here," Barry said.

"Did you find them?" Felicity asked anxiously sprinting to the phone.

Oliver came up behind her and slipped his hand into hers.

"No," Detective Lance revealed and Oliver squeezed her hand to comfort her. "But I did find something else. I just e-mailed a picture of your suspect and Ms. Larvan together. There are several such pictures all over the apartment," he stated gruffly. "We'll get forensics in here and I'll let you know if we find anything that could lead to the retrieval of your people."

Barry click on his e-mail and opened the attachment that Detective Lance sent to him. A portrait picture of Lonnie Machin and Brie Larvan locked in a loving embrace appeared on the screen. He was her boyfriend!

"We need to look at all of Brie's assets," Diggle stated immediately. "Did she ever give up her apartment in Central City? Machin could be held up there."

"I think she has a house. I think I remember her saying that she was going home to Central City for the Independence Day weekend. HR should have the address," Felicity stated picking up the CCPD phone to call the HR manager. If Brie was really monitoring her then using her cell phone would be unwise.

**Sept -5**

The nearest Felicity was allowed to the raid on Brie's house was down the street in the police van. She wanted to be closer, she wanted to be the person to knock on the door but they didn't allow her to do that. Oliver practically had a meltdown when she suggested it.

There were three tactical teams assigned to the raid. One to enter through the front, one to go through the back, and one that consisted of a few snipers perched in bushes around the house.

She could barely sit still as she listened to the undercover detective knocking on the door. He was dressed as a health inspector. He knocked three times but there was no answer. After a bit of debate about what the next course of action should be, Joe gave the order to breech the house and from there things moved a lot faster.

The teams stationed at the front and back of the house entered at the same time and someone started shooting at them. Felicity had jumped at the sound of the gunfire and Oliver pulled her into his arms. He held her tight and assured her that things were going to be ok. She heard calls of man down and comments of a man with monstrous strength that sent an officer through a wall. The gun fire continued until eventually she heard the suspect was down.

"You ok," Oliver whispered in her ear when there were no more shots being fired.

She nodded her head against his chest.

The team leader reported that the ground floor was clear of hostiles and ordered two officers to check upstairs. A short while later it was reported that upstairs was clear. This confused Felicity. She was so sure that her friends were there. She looked at Joe confused.

"Let them check the house thoroughly, right now they're focused on hostiles," he said.

It was an agonising ten minutes before someone reported that they had found a steel door hidden behind a standing cabinet that had been pushed into place to hide it. The door had an encrypted key pad and they were calling for tech support to open it. Felicity volunteered to do it. Oliver protested. He didn't want her in that house but she said it was her choice to help her friends and if they were down in that basement, they shouldn't have to wait the half an hour it would take to get tech support here when she could probably open it in two minutes.

Oliver followed Felicity into the house. The officers led her to the door in a roundabout way to prevent her from seeing the blood on the floor and the sheet covering the dead body in the living room. Felicity was at least grateful for that. She focused on getting the facing off the keypad and then used her tablet to pull up the schematics. She cut a few wires here and there and then reconnected them to force a factory reset and entered the default code. The door opened. Felicity was about to put her foot forward to go through the door when Oliver pulled her back with a frown on his face.

"The police first," he reminded her.

She reluctantly let a team of officers go down before her. There was no immediate sound of gunfire and Felicity decided that was a positive sign.

"We found them. We need medical assistance," an officer called up.

Felicity rushed down the stairs to find Caitlin and Ronnie being released from their restraints. They looked fine albeit a bit traumatised.

"You're safe," Felicity said relieved to see them. She walked up to Caitlin and hugged her.

The missing equipment from the research facility were all in the basement. There were tubes labelled with dates which Felicity could only assume were different batches of the serum.

"We're ok but Dr. Binkley isn't in a very good condition. They'll have to take him to the hospital. He's been down there for months and he'll probably lose his hand," Caitlin said sadly.

The paramedics arrived and Felicity followed her friends to the hospital to ensure they were completely fine. An arrest warrant was issue for Brie Larvan and Detective Lance arrested her at the Queen Consolidated building in Starling City.

**Sept-6**

Felicity stood in front of her mother's headstone. Today marked two years since her mother's death. It was hard to believe that the time had flown by so quickly, even harder to believe that she had actually lived without her mother. It was ironic because when she was younger she couldn't wait to get out of Las Vegas and away from Donna. She wanted to be with people who were more like herself. People who thought coding was their world. It wasn't until her mother was diagnosed with cancer the first time that it dawned on her how important her mother was to her.

It was a shame that it took the possibility of losing her mother for her to finally appreciate her mother. She had foolishly let their many differences divide them. She hadn't understood the strong influence her mother had had on her life. It was only in reflection that she could see how her mother helped shape her life and helped her become the person she was today. She was extremely grateful for the extra years that she'd been given with her mother. It gave her the chance to let go of those childhood feelings and truly embrace her mother.

They became the best of friends. She grew accustomed to her mother calling her to tell her she found a cute guy for her at the bar, or a dress that she thought would be perfect for her. Felicity would take pictures of shoes she saw on sale and then send them to her mother to see if she liked them. She remembered the first time it had truly hit home that her mother had died. She was casually walking through the mall and she saw a nice pair of shoes on sale. She had instinctively reached for the phone to take the picture but then a little voice at the back of her head reminded her that her mother was dead. Her hand paused in mid-air and tears started to leak from her eyes. The kid walking nearby had come over to ask her if she was ok. She wiped the tears from her eyes and carried on.

Oliver always let her go first and talk to the headstone by herself. She knew her mother wasn't there. It just made her feel better. She had shown her mother the engagement ring the last time she was there so all she had to update her on was the results of the investigation and the wedding planning.

She filled her mother in on all of the confirmed details for the wedding. She could picture her mom making some ridiculous comment and embarrassing her. Her mom would probably zero in on the wedding night and the honeymoon. If her mom were still there Felicity probably wouldn't even have to shop for lingerie. Donna would be more than happy to provide her with the most outrageous pieces she could find. She missed that bran of flavour in her life. A single tear made its way down her cheek. A strong hand snaked around her waist and she was pulled against Oliver.

The musky scent of his cologne comforted her. She felt him press a kiss to her head. She still had that empty hole that her mother left behind but it was more bearable.

"It's back," Oliver said pointing to the large blue butterfly that had appeared out of nowhere.

Felicity frowned, a butterfly? She hardly noticed butterflies much less a blue one.

"You've seen it before?" she asked.

"Last year," he responded.

"That's strange. I've never seen one like this before. Must be the time of the year," she guessed.

"Maybe," Oliver said with a shrug. "If you're not finished yet, I could come back," he offered.

"No I think I'm done. It's your turn anyway," she said stepping away from him.

She didn't know what he said to her mother. That was between the two of them. It warmed her heart that in the short time he had lived with them that Donna had become important to him as well. He never complained about coming out to see her grave or the money Felicity spent to keep the grave maintained which included placing her mother's favourite bouquet of flowers there once a month. Maybe the bouquet was what was drawing the butterfly.

**Sept-7**

It was late September when Moira finally appeared in Felicity's office. She hadn't really interacted with her or Oliver since the major blowout in July. Moira was smart enough to know that Oliver needed time to forgive her for her actions.

"The invitations were mailed out," Felicity said cutting straight to the chase before Moira could sit down.

"Yes I'm aware, I received mine today," Moira informed her taking the seat opposite her.

Felicity looked past her to see that her temporary assistant wasn't at her desk. Jerry had been sick for the last two days.

"Oh," Felicity said, "Were you pleased with them?" she asked hesitantly. Perhaps she disapproved of the invites and that was why she was there.

"They were tastefully done. My sister is quite excited for the wedding now that she knows the date," Moira revealed.

"I imagine most of the family is," Felicity commented. From what she had heard from Oliver the Dearden side of the family was overjoyed that Oliver was finally settling down and staying out of the tabloid pages.

"It was certainly a nice touch to ask for donations to Rebecca Merlyn's clinic in lieu of gifts," Moira praised. Tommy's invitation for his wedding had no such request.

Felicity was surprised by the praise she received. It wasn't often that Moira praised anything. She was often critical and pushed for perfection in everything.

"Thank you but why are you here Moira?" Felicity asked.

The older woman was silent for a minute as she studied her closely, "I'm mainly here to talk about getting back into Oliver's good graces. It's been two months since the argument about Thea and Roy and he's still a bit frosty," Moira said choosing her words carefully. "I'm also trying to get in contact with Sara," she tacked on at the end.

"Ok let's tackle the easiest one first. I can e-mail you Sara's e-mail address right now," Felicity said pulling it up on her computer screen and sending it off to her.

"I was hoping for her number," Moira pushed carefully.

"If Sara wanted you to have her number, you would have it. E-mail her and if she wishes for you to call her, she will give you her number," Felicity stated. Felicity had no idea what Moira needed to contact Sara for and she was not going to ask why and get pulled into something else. Her plate was already full with finding a new Chief Technical Officer, a new head of Cyber-security and finalising the report about Project Sampson. The project report would be finished by the end of the month but the recruitment process was lasting into November. The adverts for the positions had already been advertised. The first round of interviews would start in October with the final round ending in November with just enough time for the chosen candidate to give their previous employer two weeks' notice and start work before Felicity left for her wedding and honeymoon.

Moira relented and accepted that the e-mail address would have to do.

"As for Oliver, I can't help you with that. It's for the two of you to work out. I don't condone what you did but I can understand why you did it. I know you think you were trying to teach something to Thea but I don't think she understood because of the way you manipulated the situation. If anything you made the choice between Roy and Alex easier for her to make by throwing Roy into an awful situation that he did not know how to handle and his worst self shone through. But don't worry. Roy is learning from his mistakes. He's started school and he's doing well so far. He aced his first quiz and the three of us are terribly proud of him. We'll see how round two at Tommy's wedding turns out," Felicity said confidently.

"He's invited to the wedding?" Moira asked surprised.

"Of course he is," Felicity replied. "He's Tommy's best employee. Quite a few staff members from Verdant will be there."

Moira sighed deeply, "Thea is taking Alex as her plus one."

"I know. This time we have warned Roy what to expect," Felicity told her. "Things will turn out quite differently to last time."

Moira stood, "Thank you for your time Felicity. I have a City Council meeting I need to attend."

Felicity gave Moira a pleasant smile before the woman left. She made a mental note to tell Roy to be extra polite to Mrs. Queen at the wedding.

**Sept-8**

The alerts on Felicity's phone started going off non-stop. She stopped reading the financial report on her desktop and checked to see what was triggering the alerts. There were several hits for the Olicity wedding. Felicity opened up the first article and the news headline pissed her off.

 _Breaking News, Olicity wedding, December 4_ _th_ _at Caeser's Palace_

Felicity immediately pulled up the invite list for the wedding to see which group had the Caesars Palace pick-up. She was surprised to find that is was the Dearden side of the family. She immediately called up Moira.

"Hello," the Queen Matriarch answered in a sickly sweet voice.

"There's a leak of wedding information from the Dearden side, find it and seal it," Felicity demanded. She hung up immediately not giving Moira anytime to respond to her. The older woman was smart enough to check the gossip sites to see what Felicity was talking about.

She was so angry that the vultures knew her wedding date. She decided to use her desktop to check to see what other details they had on her wedding. The Merlance wedding had been knocked off the top spot at every site Felicity visited. In fact the top five articles were now all about her wedding. She even found an article comparing the details they knew about the Merlance wedding and the Olicity wedding.

The only details she was able to find about her own wedding were the date, supposed location and time. Nothing else had leaked. She even found an article with a scanned copy of the invitation. If the gossip site had received it via e-mail she could find the culprit easily but she would give Moira a few days to find the person first.

She saw references to reporters who were calling around to all the top wedding supply stores trying to find out who was preparing stuff for Felicity's wedding. Some of the no's she saw on the list were from people that she was using. She was glad that they had respected her wishes for privacy.

Felicity eventually let the curiosity get the better of her and she clicked on an article that promised the latest details on the Merlance wedding. It was one of those articles that updated as more details were discovered. The latest addition to the article was details about Laurel's cake. She wanted a five tier red velvet cake. Felicity scrunched her nose in disgust. She wasn't a fan of red velvet. There was an accompanying picture of what the cake was to look like when finished. Each tier was supported by pillars that were covered in diamonds. Each layer of cake was trimmed with an elaborate pattern of flowers on each tier. The cake was topped with small model replicas of Tommy and Laurel dressed as the groom and bride. It was a very beautiful cake but the price tag next to it caused Felicity to nearly choke on her own saliva. She thought she went all out on her cake but she was getting a steal of a deal apparently.

The next item on the list was the colour scheme. She knew from Sara that Laurel had settled on the primary colour being royal purple with a silver accents and blue trim and something about a little bit of red and orange here and there for a burst of colour. The website confirmed it and Felicity had no idea how it was going to work. The centre piece was going to be an elaborate round multi-layered crystal candle holder that held twenty scented candles. It would have the same overall look as the five tier cake. The table clothes were purple, the chairs silver with blue ties. There would be red roses adorning the decoration in the ballroom and below the candle centrepiece. Felicity didn't see any mention of where the orange was being incorporated.

The bridesmaid's dresses Laurel chose were in the article as well. Felicity thought they were downright awful. When Sara was there she went for her first fitting. She sent Felicity a picture. It was a royal purple with poofy sleeves and a layered tool skirt that stopped at the awkward length of mid calf. Sara hated it.

Felicity knew Caitlin and Sara had been discussing the design of their dresses for her wedding and they were down to a few designs. They insisted that they were going to send them to her for her to make the final choice.

Her phone rang again. It was Moira. That was quick.

"It was Oliver's cousin Katie," she said.

"The one going to school in New York?" Felicity asked.

"Yes that one. Her mother sent her a scanned copy of the invitation. Her roommate borrowed her computer to complete a project and saw the e-mail. She forwarded it to her herself and sold it for a lot money," Moira revealed. "Katie is very sorry."

Felicity grumbled. If the story was true she couldn't get angry with Katie. "I hope they use the money for tuition and not a party."

Moira actually snorted. "Young people often don't have the best money management skills."

Felicity laughed. That was so true. She had done some pretty stupid things at MIT.

"Thank you for handing this matter so swiftly," Felicity said sincerely.

"You're very welcome my dear, if there are any other leaks, please let me know. I'll be more than happy to plug them myself," Moira offered.

"I will keep that in mind. Please tell your sister that I will be arranging a new pick up point for her group so they aren't hounded by paparazzi," Felicity told her.

"I will let her know," Moira responded.

Felicity thanked her again and decided to get back to work. She had let herself get distracted by the wedding for too long. Robert was expecting her comments on the report that afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter (Tommy's wedding) won't be posted until I update Lessons Learnt and post the eight one-shots that have been gathering on my computer.


	11. October

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. Here we are, Tommy's wedding! I have to warn you, this chapter got completely out of control and probably very far away from the Olicity wedding.

Oliver removed her suitcase out of the trunk of their car and handed it off to Diggle to pack in the cargo hold of QC's jet. Laurel and the rest of her bridesmaids were already on board and waiting for her. She still wasn't quite sure how she got roped into the bachelorette party. She's pretty sure both Tommy and Sara had something to do with her being invited to the bachelorette or maybe it was the fact that they were using QC's private jet and it would have been a slap in the face to use the jet and not invite Felicity. Either way she's stuck going to a bachelorette party she had no intention of going to. Once the invite came, Felicity knew it would have caused too much drama to say no, so she just sucked it up and agreed.

The party was being held at an expensive nightclub in New York on Saturday night. They were flying out Friday night and returning Sunday night. Even though the threat to Felicity's life was over, she still kept Diggle on as her personal bodyguard. Despite Joanna's protests, Felicity insisted that Diggle come with them much to Oliver's approval. She assured her that they would barely notice Diggle in the background.

Tommy was holding his bachelor party in Thailand and they were leaving at the same time but they wouldn't be returning to Starling until Wednesday. If Tommy and Laurel won't having their parties at the same time, Laurel could have used the Merlyn Global jet. Felicity had refrained from commenting on Tommy following the movie " _The Hangover"_ but apparently Malcolm had. He gave Tommy some strict instructions to follow, that Felicity knew they would forget the moment they landed.

Oliver wrapped his arms around her and rested his forehead against hers. "Be careful," he said worried. "I don't trust any of Laurel's friends."

"I'll be fine," Felicity reminded him. "I'm not going to let them drag me into anything illegal. Besides Sara and Digg are there as well."

"Sara has her own issues to sort out," Oliver said knowingly.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. I'm not the one going off to a foreign country. Remember to keep your passport safe and try not to get thrown in jail. Thai jails are not like American jails," Felicity told him.

Oliver cracked a small smile, "I promise I won't see the inside of a Thai cell."

He bent down to kiss her softly. Felicity's eyes fell shut and she relished in the feel of Oliver's lips against hers. She was going to have to go five days without another kiss from Oliver and she tried to hold on to that kiss for as long as possible.

"Felicity!" Joanna shouted angrily from the plane. "We need to leave now!"

"I love you," Felicity said to Oliver. Her eyes were completely locked on his.

"I love you too," Oliver said bending down to peck her quickly on the lips again.

Felicity reluctantly pulled out of Oliver's embrace and walked over to the plane. When she reached the base of the steps she was surprised to see Nyssa coming out of the plane.

"Nyssa! Are you joining us?" she asked surprised.

"No, unfortunately no significant others are allowed but I wanted to make sure my beloved would be ok," she said as she started to make her way down the steps. At the base of the steps she stopped opposite Felicity, "Please look after my beloved. When it comes to Laurel she sometimes doesn't think straight."

Felicity reached out and took Nyssa's hand in hers. She squeezed it reassuringly, "I'll try my best."

"Felicity!" Joanna screeched again at the top of the stairs.

Nyssa frowned, "That one is annoying."

Felicity laughed and grudgingly climbed the stairs towards what she felt was her doom. Just before she entered the plane she stopped to look back at Oliver. Nyssa had walked over to Oliver and they were briefly conversing but he hadn't taken his eyes off of her. She waved goodbye and he followed suit. Joanna pulled her into the plane and the flight attendant, Marge, started to lock the door. She walked down the length of the plane looking for a window seat but they were all taken. She stood in the aisle and looked out as Oliver said goodbye to Nyssa and picked up his overnight bag. He then started walking out of the hanger towards the hanger next door where the Merlyn Global jet was parked.

With the exception of Sara, who seemed to be asleep on a seat at the back, all of the other women looked excited. On the seats on the other side of the aisle from Sara was Diggle and one of Laurel's bridesmaids. There were so many of them Felicity couldn't keep track of who was who. Diggle inclined his head towards the open seat next to Sara and Felicity settled into it for the voyage. It was going to be a long weekend.

**Oct-2**

As soon as they reached the cruising altitude, Joanna started the bridal shower games. As the Maid of Honour, it had been Joanna's responsibility to plan the bachelorette. Felicity had taken a quick peek at the schedule and Joanna seemed to have planned the entire trip down to the minute. There were allotted times for flying, games, shopping, eating, sleeping, clubbing and relaxing. Felicity's tardiness in the hanger had probably already pushed her back a good twenty minutes. It wasn't anything Captain Holden, the QC pilot, couldn't make up in the air so Felicity wasn't really worried about spoiling the party.

The games bored Felicity. Maybe it was because most of the women were strangers to her but she had a hard time understanding what was so entertaining about the games. Most of them were so simple, a toddler could innocently do them. Plus all the giggling at the sexual innuendos was driving her mad. It wasn't like Laurel was some virginal bride. She was a grown mature woman who was supposed to be making a serious life commitment. When the first case of champagne was opened and the bottles started being popped, Felicity decided to sit in the jump seat in the cockpit. Digg could keep an eye on Sara for her.

She knew Captain Holden well. He flew her out to Central City regularly and she had gotten to know his entire crew.

"Getting to rowdy in the back for you?" he asked her as soon as she entered.

"Just wanted a little peace and quiet," she admitted.

The Captain nodded, "Mr. Queen told me to expect you. He suggested we fly over some interesting geographical features on the way to New York. He thinks you would like to see them."

"That sounds great," she said buckling herself into her seat. "Does it delay our arrival time?" she asked.

"No, when I developed the flight plan, I did it with those flyovers in mind," he responded.

"Great, let's see the sights!" Felicity declared.

Four hours later, Captain Holden asked her to return to her seat in the main cabin as he was beginning preparations to land. Felicity complied and returned to the main cabin. The women were in various states of drunkenness. Marge was trying to encourage them all to drink some water but some still insisted they wanted champagne. The flight attendant looked like she was at her wits end. Sara was still seated in the back nursing her own personal bottle, which Felicity was pleased to note, was mostly full.

"We're getting ready to land," Felicity told her as she strapped herself in.

"Great," she said looking at her wrist watch, "only 46 more hours of torture."

"It hasn't been that bad," Felicity stated.

"You ran away to the cockpit!" Sara declared angrily. "Diggle is scared for life."

"Leave me out of this Sara," Diggle said calmly.

"You seemed to be enjoying the games," Felicity said defending herself.

"I only have so much tolerance for Laurel's friends," Sara said holding up her right thumb and right index finger with about 1 cm of space between them. "I gave up about half an hour after you deserted me and sat here with this bottle to ward them off," Sara admitted.

"At least you're not drunk," Felicity pointed out.

"Do you think we can ditch them at the hotel?" Sara asked hopefully.

"Nope," Felicity said popping her p, "I'm fairly sure Joanna would murder us!"

"You're such a party pooper," Sara sulked crossing her hands over her chest.

The Captain made the official announcement that they would be landing soon and asked Marge to ensure that the passengers and cabin were prepared for landing. Marge started at the first row and slowly started confiscating items and locking them away. When she finally reached their row, she took Sara's bottle of champagne away much to Sara's displeasure.

As soon as the wheels touched the ground on the private airstrip, Felicity turned on her phone and shot off a quick text to Oliver letting him know she landed safely. She knew his phone was off and only when he landed in Thailand and turned it on would he get the text. There was a limo waiting for them on the ground with another black sedan behind it. The sedan would be what Diggle followed them around in and what Sara was begging to go to the hotel in.

It was when they were closing the door to the limo that Laurel declared she had lost her ring! That set about a frantic search of the tarmac and the plane for the ring. After about half an hour her friends convinced her that it was ok and that Tommy had more than enough money to get her another one. In fact they told her Tommy could buy her a bigger ring to replace that one. Laurel seemed ok with that thought and the search for the ring halted.

"Ms. Smoak we will keep searching for the ring," Captain Holden told her.

"Please do. Are you going to the apartment that has the safe?" she asked him.

"Yes, the crew is staying there. If you need to return sooner just give us a call," he told her.

"I'll stop by after everyone gets settled in the hotel. I have something I want to put in the safe," she told him.

"Ok I'll let the security know to expect you," he said.

QC owned three apartments in New York that they used to house staff that came for meetings and the flight crew for the plane. One of the apartments had a safe that was used to place confidential items. Felicity was one of the few that knew the code. She was going to place her engagement ring in the safe. No way in hell was she losing her ring. It was not replaceable like Laurel's. It was one of a kind and Oliver had poured his heart and soul into the design. If things were going to get as wild as she thought then she was going to protect her ring.

The entire party had three suites booked at the Ritz-Carlton. The largest suite was occupied by Laurel and three of her bridesmaids. Felicity and Sara took one suite to themselves and the balance took the third one. There were three bedrooms in her suite. Felicity took the one furthest away from the door as Diggle instructed and Sara the one next to her. Diggle then took the bedroom closest to the door.

When she finished unpacking, she joined the girls in Laurel's large suit. Diggle did a security check and once he was satisfied that the area was safe, he exited the room to stand outside the door. Most of the bridesmaids showed interest in Diggle but Felicity shut them down. She told them he was a married man but a few of them didn't seem to care. They were there to have fun and they were going to have fun.

Felicity stayed for about an hour before she left on the excuse that she was feeling a little light headed. That remarked had a few of the women asking if she was pregnant, which earned them her patented glare. Why was it people were always on the lookout for pregnancy signs and baby bumps? Sara voluntarily stayed behind. Diggle asked the head of hotel security to let him know if the group of women left the hotel while he escorted Felicity to the QC apartment to secure her ring. When she returned to the suit Sara wasn't back yet.

**Oct-3**

Felicity woke up early on Saturday morning curled up under her blanket. She had realised after her many trips to Central City that she slept better if she brought the blanket from their bed that she and Oliver cuddled up under every night. The blanket reminded her of him and for a few seconds in the morning when her mind was still groggy she would think she was with him. Of course reality would come crashing in when she didn't feel the weight of Oliver's arm around her or his feet tangled with hers.

She knew she had quite a few more nights to go without her Oliver to cuddle up to. A quick check of her phone revealed a text message from Oliver that indicated that they landed safely and he was already missing her. A fond smile pulled at her lips and she typed out a quick message letting him know that she had a safe night and was missing him very much as well.

She highly suspected that she was the only one awake. She heard Sara stumble into the room opposite her at about 4:00am. She would probably sleep until noon. They were supposed to have a buffet brunch in Laurel's suite but that might turn into lunch. She wondered how Joanna would handle that. They were also supposed to go out shopping followed by the spa, and then the club. She suspected shopping might get cut from the agenda in order to spend more time recovering in the spa. She could really do with a nice massage herself.

Felicity headed down to breakfast with Diggle since she wasn't going to wait hours for Sara to get up to eat. They each had an omelette and orange juice before she decided to return to their suite. She used the peace and quiet to get a bit of work done. Applications had poured in for the both the Head of Cyber-Security and the Chief Technical Officer positions. HR was reviewing all the applications to ensure that the standard qualifications were met. From there they would create a short list of applicants for the first round of interviews. Felicity asked to see all of the applications. Sometimes a person may fall short on one qualifications but have something else that could make up for it. Though Felicity had the formal degree in Cyber-Security she knew there were many experts with no formal degree.

At about 11:00am there was a knock on the door and Felicity jumped up to answer it quickly before it woke Sara but Diggle was already at the door. He threw her a glare reminding her that she was not supposed to answer the door once he was present. He peeked through the keyhole and then informed her it was Joanna. He opened the door and invited the woman in.

"We've changed the brunch to lunch at 12:30pm after which we'll go straight to the spa to relax and prep for tonight," the brunette told her in a clip tone. She obviously wasn't very pleased with the way her carefully laid plans had been tossed out the window.

"Great we'll see you at 12:30," Felicity said plastering on a fake grin. Joanna nodded and left, Diggle closing the door behind her.

Felicity decided she would give Sara till twelve o'clock and then wake her up. Thoughts of how to wake her friend up crossed her mind. Maybe she could send Digg down to the ice machine to fill a bucket and dump the bucket of ice over Sara. Or she could use her lipstick and draw faces on Sara's cheeks. Or she could use her waterproof mascara and draw whiskers on Sara's face. Damn, she was spending too much time with Tommy if she was seriously considering doing some of those things. Wasn't it just last night she was saying the games on the plane were childish?

Felicity was very tempted to call Oliver and see what he was up to but she had promised herself that she would not interfere during his time with Tommy. She already received many complaints that she was hogging Oliver all to herself. She settled herself on her bed with her tablet again and focused on the applicants. She had finished reviewing the applications for the Cyber-Security post and had created her own short list that she would compare to HR's. She then focused on the applications for Chief Technical Officer.

At 12:10pm, she got a little carried away reading some of the cover letters that came with the applications, she woke Sara up by tricking her into thinking the fire alarm was going off. Sara was not pleased but Tommy was going to love the video that Felicity took. They arrived in Laurel's suite at 12:45pm and despite being fifteen minutes late, they were there before the girls in the other suite. The door to Laurel's room was still shut but Joanna and two others were filling their plates with food.

"Finally you're here," Joanna said. "Lisa can you go get the other girls. Laurel will eat after we finish eating."

"Do we need to wake Laurel up because I know the perfect way to do it?" Sara asked mischievously before giving Felicity some serious side eye.

"I got it handled," Joanna stated.

Felicity and Sara helped themselves to lunch and then settled on one of the many love seats together. Diggle remained position outside the suite. He ordered room service earlier and ate while Sara was getting ready.

"You had a late night," Felicity teased.

"Yeah, I tried to get away earlier but Laurel pulled out the sister card and I got stuck here later than I would have liked," Sara admitted.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Felicity said repeating her words from the plane.

"Not until they started discussing sex and recommending things for Laurel to try on her honeymoon, then I just wanted to puke. Tommy's going to become my brother and I didn't need to hear that shit," Sara said.

Felicity laughed hard while Sara glared mildly at her. They ate in silence for a while before Sara broke it.

"Felicity, what do you want to do for your bachelorette?" she asked her. "I mean you could go anywhere you want."

"I don't know I haven't really thought about it. You're often on the other side of the globe, Thea's in school and Caitlin's in Central City. It seems kind of difficult to get you gals together," she said reasonably.

"That's not for you to worry about Felicity. Remember we throw the party for you," Sara pointed out.

"I know just give me time to think about it," Felicity said.

In an hour's time she was face down on a massage table while a young man worked on loosening her shoulder muscles. Apparently she was tense. Sara was on the table next to her as another young man worked on her as well. After their massage, they got facial scrubs, manicures and pedicures. They even forced Diggle into getting a pedicure. She had filmed that as well for Oliver and Tommy but the first person she sent the link to was Lyla.

The sun was setting by the time they returned to the hotel. A few photographers had caught on to where they were staying and security had to escort them inside. The girls all voted for a quick nap before they got ready for the club and Felicity went back to reviewing the applications. Felicity checked her phone periodically to see if Oliver had texted but there were no messages yet. The boys probably had him busy.

After their two hour nap, everyone returned to Laurel's suite to do hair and makeup. Joanna had sourced all of their outfits for the evening. Laurel wanted each girl to pull off a look they wouldn't usually do and for Felicity that meant dressing as a seductress. The bright red dress Joanna had chosen for her clung to her body like a second skin and was far shorter than Felicity was accustomed wearing. She was sure it stopped right under her butt. If she bent over, everything would be on display for the whole world to see. She was also given knee high black stiletto boots to go with it. They emphasized her makeup and curled her hair. Felicity was sure that if she stood up on a street corner, she would have men throwing money at her.

Sara would be dressing up as a girl next door since Laurel was convinced that her baby sister was the wild one. Joanna gave Sara a skirt that stopped in the middle of her knees, a flowery blouse, a pony tail and fake glasses. They didn't use any makeup on her. She was allowed to wear six inch black pumps.

Laurel was dressed in a simple curve hugging white dress. She was given a sash that said bride-to-be along with a beautiful tiara. Each girl was also given a fancy clip that marked them as members of the bridal party.

"I hate these glasses," Sara whined as they walked to the door of Laurel's suite. They needed to collect a few things from their rooms before they left. At the top of the list was a coat.

"I hate this dress," Felicity replied. "How do you sit without everything being on display? I really think Joanna didn't take into account the shape of my butt when she bought this."

"Digg is going to have his work cut out for him tonight," Sara admitted.

They exited the suite to find Digg standing at the door. She felt like a teenage girl standing in front of her father waiting for approval, not that she had ever experienced that before she just assumed that this was what it felt like.

"Felicity, I don't think I have enough places on my body to conceal the amount of weapons I'm going to need to protect you tonight in that outfit," Diggle said seriously.

"Don't worry, I know self-defence," Sara said, "Nyssa is a Krav Maga expert and she's been teaching me. Together we can protect our girl!"

There were a ton of photographers waiting at the club to take pictures of them. Felicity pulled her coat tighter around her and walked into the club. She was not getting photographed in that outfit. Inside she took off the coat and headed straight to the VIP area where they had a booth reserved. Many men stared at her as she made her way through the club and she did her best to ignore them. When one man tried to get too close, Diggle stopped his advance while she and Sara continued on their way.

Inside the VIP section there was one other high roller there with a few of his friends. Laurel and her friends didn't hesitate to start mingling with them. Felicity preferred to keep to herself and she sat as far away from them as possible. She chose to sit at a cocktail table with a long table cloth that was close to the wall so that she could hide away from sight. When she hopped up on the stool, the skirt rode further up her legs and she felt like everything was on display. She tried to tug it down but it didn't budge. Diggle took up a stance a few feet to her right against the wall while Sara sat in the open opposite her. A tall redhead man from the other party approached them.

"Hello ladies," he said charmingly resting his hand on the back of Sara's chair while his eyes zeroed in on Felicity's thighs.

"Hello," Felicity replied pleasantly.

"Go away," Sara advised bluntly, "We're both taken and not interested."

"You haven't even heard what I have to offer yet?" the guy said licking his lips.

"I prefer women so if you have a sausage between your legs, I'm not interested," Sara told him.

"I was more interested in your friend," he replied to Sara but his eyes were still surveying Felicity's body.

"I'm married," Felicity said. "Talk to one of the other girls. You might actually have a chance with them," she told him inclining her head towards Laurel's friends. The girls were currently taking body shots off of some of the guys.

"Funny, I remember reading you were engaged and clearly you're not wearing your ring anymore," he said removing his hand from Sara's chair.

He started to move towards Felicity but Sara put her hand firmly on the man's chest. Diggle was also perched ready to act.

"Moron, she's not interested," Sara said her tone turning threatening.

Felicity had never seen this side of Sara before.

"Listen sweetheart," the man started to say.

"I am no man's sweetheart," Sara replied icily. She jumped down from her chair to confront the man but she slammed her feet down too hard and her left heel broke causing her to lose balance and topple on to the table.

The man started roaring with laughter but Felicity was too focused on Sara. The laughter started getting further away and she registered Diggle holding the man in an arm lock and escorting him away from them.

"You ok Sara?" Felicity asked her.

"I think I broke my ankle," Sara said.

"Frak, Nyssa's going to kill me!"

**Oct-4**

Spread across Sunday morning's celebrity section of the newspaper was a picture of Laurel and all of her bridesmaids, minus Sara, mooning the cameras. That had to have happened after they left the club to go to the hospital to get Sara's ankle treated. An ankle injury wasn't very high up on the triage list and they had to wait for several hours as many serious emergencies had come into the hospital that night. On her way back from the hospital at 10:00am in the morning, she picked up the paper from the newsstand outside the hotel. She briefly looked at the front page headlines before collapsing into bed.

Now, after a good eight hours of rest, she was reading the paper properly. Usually she didn't read the celebrity section but she really wanted to know what the boys were up to. The paparazzi had taken quite a few photos of the boys in Thailand. There was a picture of Tommy and two of the groomsmen running down the beach naked. The front area was blurred for the paper but the internet was bound to have the original picture. Laurel was going to kill him as soon as she sobered up and saw that particular picture.

Another picture of the guys with a few Thai girls drew her attention. One of the girls was sitting on Oliver's lap. She did not like that one bit. She opened the picture, attached it to a message and sent it to Oliver's phone with a simple message.

_What is this?_

It was six o'clock in the evening in New York. It would be Monday morning in Thailand and the boys should be asleep but Oliver's response came much quicker than she expected.

_An overzealous girl that didn't understand that I'm a taken man._

_What's this?_

There was an attachment and she opened the picture to find it was a close up of her taken when she was walking into the club. There was a large arrow that pointed to the fact that she wasn't wearing her engagement ring. She responded immediately.

_Laurel lost her engagement ring. I did not want to lose mine so I secured it in the QC apartment safe._

_Oh and I'm not in that other picture that's been floating around._

She pressed send and checked the time on her phone. She needed to swing by the apartment and collect her ring. She and Sara had opted out of the Sunday afternoon activities and they were meeting the girls at the plane at 8:00pm. She hoped they were on time. A minute later he replied.

_Laurel lost the ring! Guess she can't be too angry about the naked pictures of Tommy if she lost the ring._

_And I know you are not in that picture._

_I would recognise your gorgeous behind anywhere._

Felicity laughed at Oliver's response. She really missed him. If was probably psychological, but with so many miles between them, the little ache she always got when they were apart felt ten times worse. She didn't want the conversation to end yet so she decided to enquire about their trip.

_What do you guys have planned for tonight?_

She hoped it wasn't anything too outrageous. If she had to bail him out of jail she was sending Diggle and his mother to do it! This week was a busy week for her.

_I have absolutely no idea but the guys are already planning my bachelor party._

The smile Felicity had on her face slowly disappeared as she read his text. This probably wasn't the best medium to be discussing this but Felicity really wanted to talk to Oliver about how she felt about her own bachelorette party. She felt like she needed to get it off her chest.

_I think I'm cancelling my bachelorette. I do not want to do this._

She pressed send. She didn't know how Oliver would feel about that. The vibration of her phone alerted her to his response.

_Felicity are you sure you want to do that?_

_I realise that Laurel has probably gone way over the top_

_but you don't have to do that with your own._

She could tell by his text that he was concerned. She chose her words carefully.

_Yes. I'm sure._

_Sara broke her ankle._

_Caitlin is in Central City._

_And Thea has end of term exams to study for._

_It would be too difficult to get everyone together._

_Plus I'll be crazy busy trying to orient the new staff before our wedding._

_I think it's for the best._

She pressed send and waited with baited breathe. His reply was instantaneous.

_I'll cancel my bachelor party as well then._

Oh no. That wasn't what she wanted. She wanted him to have fun. Tommy had said that bachelor party was very important for men.

_You don't need to do that Oliver. I know you want to have fun with the guys._

She regretted opening this can of worms now. Her phone buzzed again and she looked at the message.

_I would rather stay home and share a bottle of wine with you._

_This lifestyle isn't for me anymore._

_The guys think I'm a party pooper._

_A limo just arrived to take us somewhere._

_I got to go do a head count and make sure we still have everyone._

Her heart sank when she read the text. It meant they couldn't communicate much longer. Her reply was simple.

_Ok see you soon. I love you._

His response was immediate.

_I love you too._

She put her phone down and decided to focus on getting Sara packed up and ready to travel. Her friend hated the cast on her ankle and her restricted mobility. Diggle handled all of their bags while Felicity went to the front desk to check them out. She had to pay extra for the late checkout. They had just enough time to pick up her engagement ring and arrive at the private airstrip on time.

There was a bunch of paparazzi outside the entrance to the airstrip waiting for them. Many of them were asking her if the wedding was still on because she was spotted without her engagement ring that weekend. A few asked if the picture that surfaced of Oliver having a romantic tryst with an unknown Thai girl prompted the end of their engagement. Felicity briefly wondered if she should lie and tell them that the wedding was off so they would stop trying to get the details of her wedding but then she reaslied that there was no way she and Oliver could pull off a broken up couple since they lived together. She wasn't going to move out just to fool the media.

Just as the vehicle had started to drive through the opened gate, Felicity swore she heard one reporter asking if she could confirm that Laurel had called off the wedding again. Felicity ignored it as gossip and focused on getting their stuff ready to board the plane. Laurel and the girls weren't there yet and the plane was scheduled to leave at 8:00pm. They had already filed all the necessary documents. She had work the next day and really wanted to get back on time.

After half an hour of waiting she called Joanna.

"Hey Joanna, we're waiting on you," Felicity said when the girl answered.

"We're still in New Jersey," the girl answered.

"New Jersey!" Felicity screeched.

Both Diggle and Sara frowned.

"Laurel isn't ready to leave yet," Joanna explained. "She doesn't want to face Tommy after what he said. We might overnight here."

Felicity put her hand to her temple. She had no idea what was going on and she had the sneaking suspicion that she didn't want to know.

"Look, Joanna. I need to get back to Star City. I thought Laurel had to get back as well but apparently I was wrong. The plane is leaving now. Laurel and Tommy can pay for your return tickets to Star City," Felicity said hanging up the phone.

"We're going. Captain Holden, start up the engines let's get out of here!"

**Oct-5**

Felicity was happy to be home after that whirlwind weekend. The boys were of course still in Thailand, Laurel was still somewhere on the east coast and Oliver was stuck playing mediator. Felicity was determined not to get involved. Whatever their fight was about, they needed to solve it like adults. Naturally they had to find their solution by Friday night because Malcolm indicated that he was not calling off the wedding and come Saturday, the two of them had to get married.

Felicity chose to focus on her own wedding. She had sent Caitlin her preferred choice for the bridesmaid dress with a few suggestions and Caitlin replied with an updated design. Felicity loved it and sent her an e-mail telling her to go ahead with the seamstress in Central City to get them done. The dress was going to be an emerald green floor length fitted dress. The sides were straight and it would have two slits on either side so the girls could walk. The top of the dress was a straight tube top cut across with one silver strap that started from the top right hand corner of the dress cutting across the chest to the left shoulder, over on to the back, straight down to the waist and then wrap around to the front to create a belt. The start of the strap on the top would like the tail end of an arrow and the end of the silver streak on the front would be the head of the arrow.

Felicity sent Thea the final design for the bridesmaid dresses and offered her the opportunity to wear the same dress as the other bridesmaids. She knew Thea really wanted to feel included in the bridal party and the dress would do that. Within five minutes Thea responded with a resounding YES. It was soon followed by an e-mail from the Queen tailor with Thea's measurements so that she could get her dress made with Caitlin's and Sara's.

She was further distracted when Diggle arrived. He had another guard watching her while he went for an appointment with Lyla.

"Everything ok Digg?" she asked him.

"Great news actually. Lyla's pregnant!" he beamed.

"That's great news. Congratulations! We need to celebrate!" she declared.

"Don't you want to wait for Oliver?" he asked.

"We can celebrate again when Oliver returns. Tell Lyla to pick the place. I'm covering the bill for the night."

**Oct-6**

Getting Oliver out of the loft the morning of Laurel's wedding, felt like an absolute rush. He needed to get to the hotel were Tommy was getting ready by 8:00am. Felicity made sure he had his tux, his shoes, his socks, his shampoo, his soap, his razor, his phone, his keys, the best man speech (which she had printed several copies of) and a small duffel bag filled with snacks for him, Sara and Tommy. It was going to be a long day and she didn't know if they would get to have a proper meal before the wedding.

Once he was gone, Felicity took her time to get ready. She drew a bath, added her favourite oils and relaxed for about half an hour. Thea would be coming over soon to do her hair and makeup. Felicity decided not to get it professionally done because she didn't want to go through that hassle. Laurel wouldn't want any pictures with her anyway, especially not after the way she yelled at Laurel Thursday night to get her head out of her ass and just marry the man she loved. Really what was so hard about that? Despite his outrageous tendencies Tommy was a good man and if Laurel wasn't careful, some other woman might swoop in and take him from her.

Felicity had chosen to wear the female version of a tux. Nyssa was wearing one and Sara was afraid of her girlfriend sticking out like a sore thumb so Felicity said she would wear one as well. Thea thought it was a very cool idea and she decided to wear one as well. The Queen tailor made each of them a classic tux. Thea chose to add a satin outline on the edge of her jacket and Felicity decided to go with the simple look.

Felicity had never worn a tux before and wasn't sure how it would look but when she looked in the mirror she was extremely pleased with the results. The pants was perfectly tailored to her figure and she had never seen her butt look so good. The jacket fit her snugly and outlined the curve of her spine. She needed to add more pant suits to her wardrobe.

Thea decided that they would both keep the make-up light but add a smokey effect to their eyes. They straightened their hair and then decided on a high ponytail instead of some fancy do.

At exactly 2:30pm, Moira and Robert arrived in the limo and they headed to the church as a family. Alex would meet them at the church. Oliver looked extremely dashing standing next to Tommy in front of the church. They had a few minutes to spare before the bride arrived and Felicity couldn't resist not talking to Oliver. His eyes followed her the whole way up the aisle to them.

"You ready Tommy?" she asked stopping to give him a friendly peck on the cheek.

"Who is this marvelous beauty in front of me?" Tommy asked as he gave her a once over.

"Tommy you're supposed to be focused on your bride," she chided.

"I am but she's not here yet so I'm indulging in my last five minutes as a free man," Tommy said.

Oliver's hand circled around her wrist and he pulled her to his side, "Focus on someone else. This beauty is taken."

Felicity laughed and Oliver dipped his head to kiss her on the cheek.

"Hello beautiful," he said in that husky deep voice of his that sent thrills of excitement through her.

"Hello handsome," she said looking up at him with a smile.

A chorus of trumpets interrupted them. Laurel and her party of bridesmaids had arrived.

"I'll see you later," Felicity said to him pecking him lightly on the cheek.

She started to walk away from him to join the rest of the family but he reached out and pulled her back against his chest.

"You look amazing. I can't wait to rip those pants off of you tonight," his deep voice whispered in her ear for only her to hear.

Her eyes widened and he released her. She looked back up at him to see a mischievous smirk. Smug bastard. She made sure to put an extra sway in her hips as she walked away from him. They were seated right behind the first pew that the groomsmen occupied. She couldn't get to sit right behind Oliver because that was where Malcolm was seated.

Sara was the first one to hobble down the aisle on her crutches. Laurel had been so busy arguing with Tommy it hadn't really clicked to her that Sara had a cast on her foot until the day before the wedding. She then ordered the photographer to find ways to take the pictures that didn't reveal Sara's cast. Felicity didn't pay much attention to the other bridesmaids. She stared at her fiancé's handsome face and he stared right back at her. Felicity tuned out most the ceremony preferring to study Oliver in his tux and how much fun she was going to have with those suspenders later. When they came to the exchange of vows, Oliver reached out behind him for her. His arm was long enough to almost reach her and she spanned whatever distance remained. He looked at her and squeezed her hand as the traditional wedding vows were read.

"Two more months," he said mouthed to her.

"Two more months," she repeated wordlessly.

Far sooner than she would have liked, Oliver had to pull away to fulfill his best man duties.

**Oct-7**

Tommy's wedding reception was very grand. Everything was exactly as described as she had read. She settled herself at the table at the back of the room that was assigned to the significant others of members of the bridal party. Robert, Moira, Thea and Alex were seated in the middle of the room at a table that was occupied with other businessmen. John and Lyla were seated with Roy at the tables that Tommy had reserved for Verdant staff. After 10 minutes of idle talk Felicity excused herself from the table, Nyssa following suit, to head over to the bar.

"How long do you think we have to wait?" Nyssa asked. "My beloved cannot stay on her feet for long before her ankle starts to hurt."

"I think they are going to be a while. From what I heard, Laurel wanted a lot of pictures," Felicity said. She ordered a glass of red wine and turned to observe the room. Persons were still slowly trickling in from the church.

"I hope my beloved survives," Nyssa said worried.

"I hope so too," Felicity agreed.

"How are plans for your wedding coming along?" Nyssa asked curiously.

"Great. It's nothing as big as this. More low key. We wanted to celebrate with people that really mattered to us," Felicity said to her while Nyssa nodded in understanding.

"You must be Felicity Smoak," a new voice commented.

She turned around to find a gorgeous brunette in a black mini dress with a plunging neckline to her navel.

"Hello," Felicity replied pleasantly.

The woman looked her up and down, "He doesn't usually do blondes. Don't expect your marriage to last long. **If** you even make it to the wedding day. I'm sure there's a reason your engagement period is so long," the woman sneered at her.

Before Felicity could even fathom a response, Nyssa spoke up in a no nonsense tone, "If you have nothing kind to say you should leave us. I would hate for you to have need of a plastic surgeon to fix that nose of yours."

"There's nothing wrong with my nose?" the woman replied hotly.

"Nothing yet," Nyssa replied in a threatening tone.

When the woman made a hasty retreat Felicity looked at Nyssa, "I should probably take some lessons from you on how to make them disappear."

Nyssa laughed softly, "Felicity Smoak, you are fine just the way you are."

**Oct-8**

Half an hour later, Felicity and Nyssa decided to join the rest of the Queen family at their table. The other occupants of the table had left to mingle with other people around the area. Felicity noticed that Thea kept looking at Roy's table whenever Alex looked away from her. Roy had casually draped his hand behind one of the Verdant waitress's chairs as he spoke with her and Thea didn't seem very happy about that. In response, Thea shifted closer to Alex. Felicity couldn't help the small smile that formed on her face. It was certainly going to be an interesting night.

The waiters started appearing with trays full of appetisers.

"Are there nuts in any items?" Moira inquired when the waiter approached their table.

"I'm not sure. I'll have to check with the chef," the waiter responded.

"Please check with the chef. My daughter-in-law is allergic to nuts and I'm sure the hotel doesn't want to be sued if she consumes something that is supposed to be nut free," Moira said in a serious tone.

Felicity was heartened that Moira remembered her allergy but before she could say anything about it, Thea excused herself from the table to go say hello to Diggle and Lyla. Moira nodded but her eyes cut swiftly to Felicity when Thea couldn't see her. Moira hadn't missed the looks either or the fact that Diggle and Lyla were seated at Roy's table. Moira then engaged Alex in conversation.

Felicity's phone started buzzing with messages from both Oliver and Sara about the photoshoot. At the same time, pictures from the photoshoot were leaking online. Someone in the wedding party was posting the pictures. As the time dragged on Oliver started complaining bitterly about the pictures. He said he couldn't smile anymore and it showed in the last picture that the paparazzi posted. He was openly glaring at the camera.

She got a message from Tommy thanking her for the granola bar she had packed specifically for him. Sara said a few of the groomsmen were thankful for the large pack of potato chips she packed. They were all getting hungry.

Thea returned from a rather long conversation with Diggle and asked Alex to use her phone to take a picture of her, Felicity and Nyssa all posed together in their tuxes with drinks in their hand. She then posted it online with the hashtag, waiting for the bride. The post was quickly picked up on by the paparazzi.

"Why did you do that?" Felicity asked watching the comments rack up about how hot they looked or how they should have stuck to dresses instead.

"To remind whoever's tweeting the photos from the wedding shoot that there are guests waiting for them," Thea explained.

"I doubt they have time to see that," Felicity said finishing off her second glass of wine and signalling to the waiter to bring another one.

**Oct-9**

At the two hour mark, Moira frowned. "This is just ridiculous!" she declared.

Felicity arched an eyebrow, "You don't approve?"

"Two hours is the maximum you should keep your guests waiting! You invited them to celebrate the special occasion with you, not torture them," Moira said disgusted.

"But I thought you liked grand weddings," Felicity pushed.

"There is a difference between grand and overdone and this is the latter," Moira stated. "Three guests had asthmatic attacks because of the strongly scented candles. At least half of the guests are drunk and the other half are well on their way to joining them," Moira pointed out. Felicity noted the glass of wine in front of Moira and the scotch in front of Robert. Since she had seated herself at the table both glasses had been refilled at least twice.

"This can't go on any longer," Moira said in distress, "I'm messaging Malcolm."

"What is he going to do?" Felicity asked curiously.

Robert laughed, "He's paying for all for this. If we tell him that the guests are running up the bar tab he'll get them moving," Robert revealed. "Malcolm is absolutely green with envy that your wedding plans have been going so smoothly and it's been easy on our pockets, even with the ball we are throwing for you in January. He regrets the wedding planners. He thinks they have done nothing but drive the cost of the wedding up. Have you booked your photographer yet?" Robert asked curiously.

Felicity smirked, "Yes." When they decided they were going to have the wedding in Las Vegas Felicity immediately knew who her photographer was going to be. She couldn't wait to see the look on Moira's face when she saw the photographer.

**Oct-10**

Sure enough 10 minutes later, another chorus of trumpets sounded to indicate that the wedding party had finally arrived. The guests who were still relatively sober looked relieve. The drunks didn't care. The groomsmen entered first with the bridesmaids. Oliver had Joanna on his arm as he walked in but his eyes were glued to her the whole time. He sat at the head table next to where Tommy would be sitting. Sara couldn't quite make it to the head table and she stopped off at their table and sat next to Nyssa. The wedding planners and their assistants appeared and they laid out a bed of red rose petals from the doorway to the head table.

Laurel and Tommy soon appeared at the entrance and the DJ introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Merlyn. The guests were asked to stand to welcome the married couple and there were quite a few people that couldn't. The applause wasn't very enthusiastic either. Tommy looked elated but Laurel seemed a bit more concerned with the appearance of the room. They walked to the head table and sat down. Waiters brought plates of appetisers to the head table for them to eat. According to the programme for the evening, something Felicity needed to prepare for her own wedding, they would be allowed half an hour to relax and eat before the speeches started.

Oliver grabbed his plate and left the head table. Felicity tracked him all the way to her table. He kissed her passionately and forced his sister to move over to the empty chair next to her so he could sit next to his fiancée.

"Someone missed me," Felicity said happily.

"He definitely did. He shouted at Laurel," Sara revealed. "It was awesome."

"Really?" Felicity asked surprised.

"It was glorious," Sara gushed. "Laurel asked the guys to do a muscle man pose with Tommy and Oliver put his foot down. Shortly afterwards, Malcolm threatened to cancel their honeymoon if they didn't wrap up the pictures in the next five minutes. That got them moving faster and here we are! Hopefully now that the wedding is over, Laurel can go back to being normal."

**Oct-11**

The master of ceremony for the reception was Malcolm. He took the stage twenty five minutes earlier than he was supposed to and announced that the formal part of the ceremony would begin immediately. He was met with a round of approval from the guests. He called for the father of the bride to make his speech.

Quentin Lance stepped forward and gave the most emotional speech Felicity had ever heard. The love that man had for his daughter showed in every word he said. He started with the first day he held Laurel in his arms and how his whole world shifted on its axis. Laurel was his first baby girl and she would always be his baby girl no matter how old she got, even when she had children of her own, she would always be his baby girl. He spoke about the painful moment when he realised he had to let his baby girl make her own decisions and become her own independent person. He told Tommy that Laurel was only on loan to him. He may have escorted her up the aisle but he in no shape or form, had given her away. She was still his baby girl and Tommy needed to remember that because Quentin was a licensed gun owner! He ended with a toast to Laurel, wishing her a long and happy marriage.

Malcolm next called for the best man, "That is if you can tear yourself away from your beautiful fiancée," he teased.

Oliver nodded. He reached into his tux for the speech and then panicked. "It's gone," he said horrified. Felicity sighed. She opened her clutch and pulled out her copy of the speech and handed it to him. "What would I do without you!" he exclaimed. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and walked up to the podium.

Oliver had the crowd in stiches as he related the many adventures he and Tommy had been on, even bringing up the now infamous Thailand naked pictures. He went on to speak about the day Tommy met Laurel and the day their relationship turned romantic. He talked about the changes he saw in both of them and why he believed that them getting married was a great idea. He toasted to a long and happy marriage and then added that their first born had to be named after him.

The final person up was Tommy who started with the traditional "On behalf of my wife and I….." phrase. She had never seen Tommy happier. Laurel too seemed to have finally let go of trying to make everything perfect and was just enjoying her wedding. She looked at Tommy with so much love in her eyes as he charmed the guests with his stories of their relationship. The most heartfelt moment was when he spoke about the moment he realised that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Laurel had risen from the table pulled Tommy towards her by his jacket and kissed him senseless in front of everyone.

The person who was posting pictures from the photoshoot caught a great picture of the forehead kiss Oliver had given her before he went up to do his speech. Felicity's eyes had slipped shut and a soft smile adorned her face as his lips locked onto her skin. Oliver too, had closed his eyes when he made contact. It was a great picture and Felicity was contemplating getting it framed.

As soon as Tommy and Laurel left the wedding Oliver was ready to go. Sara had to stay behind and help her parents supervise the clean up. Moira and Robert were ready to leave as well as Alex, but Thea was nowhere to be found. Felicity glanced at a certain table and a certain bartender was missing from that table as well.

"Damn those pants look really good on you," Oliver said as they were walking out. "It's Tommy's wedding night but I feel like I'm the luckiest man on the earth and I'm very much going to enjoy this night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I had more Olicity wedding prep stuff in this chapter but I had to push it to November because this chapter was just getting too long.


	12. November

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow.

**Nov-1**

Felicity paid for that day's Central City Picture News to be fedexed to her. She wanted to sit down with a nice cup of coffee and read Iris's article on the Las Vegas Land Commission the old fashioned way. She wanted to savour the victory. Iris gave her a heads up that the article would be out today and she implied that Oliver would like the outcome of her investigation. The unfortunate downside of wanting the physical paper to be in her hand meant she had to wait for it to arrive at 3:00pm. That meant she needed to avoid all talk about the subject. From the blinding smile she saw on Oliver's face at the mid-morning meeting he was pleased, very pleased with the final result.

She busied herself with work until Jerry knocked at the door with the paper in his hand. She instantly got up and approached him, snatching the paper from his hand and sitting down on a small sofa she had in her office. The report was in the regional news section and she flipped to it quickly.

**LAS VEGAS BUILDING APPROVAL SCAM**

By Iris West

_This Reporter usually reports on news in Central City but I received information about a corrupt building inspector in Las Vegas and I felt morally obligated to report on it. Oliver Queen, yes that Oliver Queen, heir to billionaire Robert Queen, has been unjustly Queen recently started his own company to provide affordable housing to the lower income bracket. It is an admirable goal that sounds like it is all bark and no bite but Mr. Queen has actually followed up on his promise. Last year Mr. Queen purchased a five story apartment building in Las Vegas that was being used primarily by pimps and drug dealers to facilitate their illegal activities. Mr. Queen evicted the pimps and drug dealers and proceeded to renovate the entire building to not only bring it in line with current building codes but exceed them._

_I have been inside the apartment building and viewed a few of the apartments for rent. The materials used are excellent and apartments of this size and standard would normally be rented for close to $1,000.00 yet Mr. Queen is renting them for $100.00 a month. I've interviewed a few of his prospective tenants and they are all families that are struggling. Paying $100.00 a month might still be a struggle but they are grateful for the offer Mr. Queen has provided them. I viewed another apartment for rent for $100.00 a month in Las Vegas and it doesn't even come close to city's building code. If you look at the walls too hard it might crumble._

_One would think that such an initiative would be wholeheartedly supported by the City of Las Vegas but Mr. Queen's building has yet to pass inspection. I consulted with three independent architects and engineers to review the building and they could find nothing wrong with the building. Finding the circumstances highly suspicious I investigated the process by which buildings are approved in the city of Las Vegas._

_Several irregularities popped up. An undercover investigation revealed several corrupt building inspectors that demand a bribe to approve buildings. Yes Oliver Queen is viewed billionaire who could afford to pay a little extra to get his building approved but should he have to? A building inspector's job is to determine if a building meets code, not how much a person should pay to get their building approved. If a building meets code it should be passed end of story. Nothing else should interfere with passing the building._

_I wandered that if the inspectors asked for bribes for buildings that met standard if they also asked for bribes that failed the standard? During a search of all the buildings that the corrupt inspectors passed in the last five years over 35% of them were found non-compliant with the code. All evidence collected in this investigation has been passed on to the local Las Vegas Police Station and this reporter has it on good authority that charges are about to be filed against the corrupt inspectors._

_The point of writing this is to remind people that if something is done right, it should be approved no matter what the person's financial status. Rules and regulations exist for a reason and they should be followed._

Felicity paused her reading when Oliver entered her office.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," he said. "I thought you would have been finished reading it by now."

"I'm almost done. I wanted to read it carefully," she said as he sat down next to her. He rested his arm on the back of the sofa so that he could pull her into his side. She welcomed his warmth and automatically cuddled into him. The scent of his cologne had her mind wandering away from the building towards other pleasurable things.

"I've received several apologies from the City of Las Vegas. The building is approved and the official opening is going to be on in two weeks on a Saturday when most people will be able to attend," he said.

"I'm so proud of you Oliver," Felicity gushed."Despite the many challenges, your first project will be a resounding success."

She couldn't wait to watch him handout the keys to the residents. She was going to hire a professional video crew to record the entire event. It was an important moment in his life and in years to come she would take pride in showing it to their children and grandchildren.

**Nov-2**

Felicity stared at the draft programme for the wedding. She should have worked on this earlier. The actual ceremony was easy but the part that came afterwards was driving her mad. She did not want to speak at the wedding. Absolutely not, she was sure she would put her foot in her mouth in some embarrassing way so it was a good thing that the bride didn't have to say anything but someone was at least supposed to say a few words on her behalf. The problem was she didn't know who she wanted to represent her. Her immediate answer would be Oliver but he was speaking last, after Tommy.

Traditionally it was the father that spoke on behalf of the bride but she hadn't even invited her biological father to the wedding. After his long absence from her life she barely knew him. She thought about Bob but he only knew her after she came back from MIT. The only other option was Susie and Felicity was afraid of what would come out of the older woman's mouth. It was bound to be embarrassing but would it be more embarrassing than if Felicity spoke herself was the question she was struggling with? There was always the option of cutting that piece of the programme out but then her part of their story would never be told.

A good love story had two sides, his and hers. Both sides needed to be told or you were getting half the story. The problem was no one person could speak to her entire story. Perhaps it was a good thing that there was no one to speak about her childhood dreams of growing up and never getting married. After watching the pain her mother went through when her father left, she had decided early on that she would not get married. She would have relationships but no marriage. What a difference falling in love with Oliver made to her views on marriage. She very much wanted to marry Oliver.

There were plenty of people that could speak about the day she met Oliver and how their relationship grew but no one could really speak with confidence about the way she grew as a person from knowing Oliver. They had both grown and changed and Felicity felt that the influence they had on each other's lives needed to be acknowledged.

The deadline for the RSVPs was November 1st but everyone replied as soon as they got the invitation. There were no declines so Oliver and Felicity would be getting married in front of everyone they wanted there. She hoped the day was going to turn out ok.

**Nov-3**

Felicity knew she needed to talk to Oliver before the wedding about her thoughts on changing her name. She had waited as long as possible but decided that early Saturday morning after his run she would do it. She needed to let Oliver know what her thoughts were. The issue had weighed on her mind heavily over the last two months and she had finally decided that she was not going to change her name. She had lived her life as Felicity Smoak and she wanted to continue her life as Felicity Smoak. There were too many documents to fill out to change her name and she did not want to hyphenate. She just wanted to be Felicity Smoak who was married to Oliver Queen. Maybe it was time for men to take on their wives' name and Oliver could become Oliver Smoak? She laughed at that thought. Oliver was perfect as Oliver Queen.

She awoke early on Saturday, much earlier than usual and made her way downstairs to the coffee pot. Usually Oliver would turn it on when he came back from his run and then come upstairs and cuddle with her aka terrorise her out of bed with his sweaty self but her mind wouldn't let her sleep in. She was nervous and anxious and afraid. She was halfway through her second cup when the door to the loft opened and Oliver came in dress in his green hoodie and grey sweatpants.

He paused on the threshold and stared at her for a second or two. His confusion at her being awake was clearly written across his face before he decided to go with the flow. He took a deep breath and closed the door behind him.

"You're up early," he commented closing the distance between them and dropping a quick kiss on her lips.

"Yeah there was just something I wanted to discuss with you and it woke me up early," she confessed getting to the point immediately. There was no sense in beating around the bush. He knew something was up.

"Is it related to the wedding?" he asked sitting down next to her on the couch.

"In a way yes. It's not about the actual date but more about the consequence of the wedding," Felicity said as she started to fidget.

Oliver took one of her hands in his and his thumb started rubbing calming circles on the back of her hand.

"If this is about the prenup we can rip up the signed one and start over?" Oliver said calmly.

Felicity smiled at him, "No not the prenup. My name, I want to keep my name," Felicity explained.

"Ok," he responded.

"I mean I know women usually take on their husband's last name and Felicity Queen really does have a nice ring to it but I've been Felicity Smoak all my life, I studied as Felicity Smoak, all of my achievements are as Felicity Smoak, I want to keep being Felicity Smoak, wait did you just say ok as in your fine with it?" Felicity asked surprised.

"Ok," Oliver repeated with a small shrug, "Whether or not you officially take the Queen last name doesn't mean you're not my Mrs. Queen. In all honesty plenty of people will think of you as Mrs. Queen anyway," Oliver said.

"I don't mind you calling me Mrs. Queen," Felicity admitted "But people at work. No. I'll just assume Moira is standing behind me."

Oliver laughed loudly, "My mother is not that bad."

"Hey, those are some very tall heels to fill!" Felicity protested.

"And you'll fill them easily. I think it's time for a shower Mrs. Queen, care to join me?" he asked holding out his hand.

"I would love to join you Mr. Smoak," Felicity teased taking his pre offered hand. The large smile he gave her was evidence that she had worked herself up over nothing.

**Nov- 4**

Felicity was in Central City for the interviews for the CTO post. The interviews for the Cyber-Security head were completed and Alena James had been offered the job. Felicity knew exactly who she wanted to offer the CTO post to but she was sure she was going to have some resistance. It was an unusual choice but it was a person Felicity had looked up to as a young hacker. Felicity was pleased when her idol made it through the first two rounds of interviews and she was actually nervous as she waited in the interview room for the HR assistant to bring her in for the last round.

The door opened and a woman with fiery red hair seated in a dull black wheel chair, wheeled herself confidently into the interview room.

"Welcome Ms. Gordon," the HR manager, Sally, seated to Felicity's right said. "It's a pleasure to have you here." Sally went on to introduce the three person interview panel.

"It's a pleasure to be here," the redhead replied smoothly, stopping her wheel chair just inches in front of the interview table. The chairs on that side of the table had already been removed to accommodate her.

Felicity had idolised Barbara Gordon in MIT. The woman was about twenty years older than her and one of the first female trailblazers in the technological fields. Barbara challenged the male dominated industry and proved that women could design and build cutting-edge devices too. Like Felicity she started out as a hacker on the internet going by the codename Oracle. She admired how Barbara used technology to help people and she was saddened when Barbara had the accident that left her paralysed from the waist down a few years ago.

"Thank you for coming today. Did you enjoy your tour of our facilities?" Sally asked.

"Yes, your labs are exactly what I expected," Barbara answered.

"And what was it that you expected?" Walter, who was seated on Felicity's other side, asked.

"State-of-the-art technologies, smart innovative scientists looking to push the boundaries of their chosen fields and broaden our scientific understandings, and management willing to foster the growth of those scientists," Barbara explained.

Felicity smiled while Sally decided to get straight to the point of the interview.

"If we were to employ you as the Chief Technical Officer, what do you think you can do for Queen Consolidated?"

Barbara smiled, "The reason man was able to rise so far above the animal world was our ability to use tools to our benefit. We are innovative creatures. We use our minds to better ourselves. My aim is keep that innovative focus on technologies that will create a better society for mankind. It's no secret why I applied for this post. I have a vested interest in the microchip that can help people walk again."

"And what will you do after that project is completed? Will you want to return to Wayne Industries?" Sally asked.

"No. The microchip can be used for so much more than just walking again. There are so many applications that it can be used for and I can only develop that if I'm here. Queen Consolidated owns the patent on it. Besides the microchip project, there's the creation of the supersuit to keep our soldiers safe during battle. This can be applied to cops in inner city streets. My dad is the Commissioner of Police in Gotham. I know what it is like to wonder if your loved one is coming home for the night or if they were gunned down in the streets trying to protect someone else."

"The two projects you spoke about are big budget items, how do you intend to make them economically feasible?" Walter asked.

Barbara smiled, "Once a technology makes life better, the demand for it will be there. I intend to make QC the frontrunner in such devices. Customers will want to buy QC because our quality will be the best on the market."

Felicity smiled. Barbara had said Walter's favourite word, quality. Walter always insisted that the quality of QC's products should be the best in the market. The quality assurance department within QC was probably overstaffed based on his preference. They spent another forty-five minutes discussing Barbara's vision for QC and possible ideas for the expansion of their product line.

After Barbara left the room, Felicity turned to the panel, "I believe we found our new CTO!"

**Nov- 5**

There was a knock at the door of the apartment that QC owned in Central City. Sally and Walter had both gone out to dinner but Felicity had decided to skip, instead bringing home Big Belly Burger to eat with Diggle. Her bodyguard cleared his throat in a very disapproving way as Felicity stood to go answer the door.

"Sorry, old habits die hard," she said with a shrug sitting back down on the sofa.

Diggle shook his head and she could swear she heard stubborn being muttered under his breath. She returned her focus to her burger knowing that if Diggle needed her he would call. She heard the tell-tale sound of heels clicking along the tiled floor and she looked up to see Caitlin and Iris, fully decked out for a club, with a garment bag and make-up kit in their hands, rushing over to her.

"Surprise!" they yelled in unison.

"What?" Felicity asked confused. Diggle who was standing behind the girls looked equally confused.

"Well," Caitlin started with a slight shy look to her features, "Sara, Thea and I were talking it over and we decided that we couldn't let you go without a bachelorette party."

"Caitlin…" Felicity started to protest.

"No!" Caitlin said fiercely, "We heard your reasons and we are countering them. We agree that it is difficult for all of us to get together in one place which is why you're going to have three separate events with each of us. I'm the first one up and strangely enough, I'm the one that's taking you clubbing but don't worry it'll be great. I brought Iris!" Caitlin said turning to the dark skinned girl next to her.

"Don't worry Felicity, I got you covered. You're going to look absolutely gorgeous tonight," Iris said placing the makeup box down. "Finish your burger then, go and shower. When you get out, I'll do your hair and makeup and then we will head out."

Diggle cleared his throat to remind them about him and Iris turned towards him, "Don't worry Digg, we know you have to come too."

Felicity showered and sat patiently as Iris did her hair and makeup. She had to admit that she was impressed with the final result. Iris had managed to make her look flawlessly beautiful without caking on the makeup. In fact it looked like she hardly had any on! The dress Caitlin pulled out was exactly her style! It was a red halter dress that fit snuggly and stopped just above her knee. It was sexy but not too revealing. She didn't have to wear a tiara or anything that said bride-to-be. It was just about them going out and having fun.

They went to one of the most exclusive clubs in Central City. Many people standing in line took their pictures as they walked passed them to the VIP entrance. A hostess greeted them there and they were escorted to their booth where a bottle of champagne was waiting for them. The hostess popped the cork and immediately poured them three glasses. She was going to pour one for Diggle too but he indicated he was on duty. His eyes had never stopped scanning the crowd. Felicity felt a twinge of guilt because this was supposed to be an easy trip for him yet here he was in a club filled with possible threats.

Caitlin and Iris raised their glasses in the air and Felicity followed suit.

"To love," Caitlin said.

"To soulmates," Iris added.

"To my forever with Oliver," Felicity said fondly.

They clicked their glasses together and each took a healthy sip.

"So Felicity, what's sex with Oliver Queen like?" Iris asked bluntly.

"Iris!" Caitlin screeched in a high pitch tone before she turned to Felicity and grabbed her arm, "You don't have to answer that."

"I was just curious," Iris said with a shrug of her shoulders and reached for her glass to take another sip.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes, "No, I know that tone; that was investigative Iris. Why did you really ask?"

"I was curious," Iris insisted. "Back when I used to date Eddie we had a…"

"Wait who is Eddie?" Felicity asked curiously.

"Eddie is her ex-boyfriend who also happens to be Joe's cop partner," Caitlin explained to her.

Felicity's eyes widened, "You used to date your father's partner?" she asked in disbelief.

Iris nodded her head.

"And Joe was ok with this?" Felicity asked.

"Yeah why wouldn't he be?" Iris replied flippantly.

Felicity didn't believe that for a second.

"Anyway, the point was that Eddie and I had a three list. Oliver Queen was the last name on my list. I never thought I would actually meet him. I mean a three list is a fantasy that you know is never going to happen."

"Do you and Barry have a three list?" Felicity asked.

"No, fantasy or not, Barry doesn't like me talking about other guys," Iris admitted. "We're happy with each other. Barry is so much more than I wanted in a boyfriend and I'm not giving him up," Iris gushed.

"Iris, are you familiar with the Chuppah at Jewish wedding?" Felicity asked as she picked up her champagne to sip on it.

"Caitlin told me about it," Iris revealed her eyes cutting to Caitlin briefly.

"I was wondering if you would like to be one of the tent poles," Felicity asked shyly.

Iris looked shocked, "Really?"

"Yes, despite the little fantasy thing, you're a good friend. I didn't really know you before but I think I've gotten to know you quite well now. If it weren't for your article, which you didn't have to write, Oliver and I might still be jumping through hoops in Vegas," Felicity explained.

"Does it mean I get to wear that awesome bridesmaid dress?" Iris asked cheekily.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. Plus I'm not sure if you can get the dress in time," Felicity stated. "The wedding is in three weeks."

"Oh I want the dress. Caitlin's using my seamstress so she'll definitely get me the dress on time," Iris insisted confidently. "These dresses are going to skyrocket her into fame!"

"Felicity," Caitlin asked, "Who is going to be the fourth person holding the Chuppah?"

"I'm not sure yet but I think I want Bob to do it," Felicity admitted.

"Do I need to hold the tent a special way?" Iris asked.

Felicity laughed, "No, you just need to walk in with the tent before us. We'll have a rehearsal the day before so I guess now you need to get to Las Vegas a day earlier than you planned."

"For the wedding of the century, I'll be there!" Iris said. "But enough talk about the wedding, we need to get our sexy selves out on the dance floor now!"

**Nov –6**

It was a beautiful day in Las Vegas and there seemed to be endless media, everywhere Felicity turned there seemed to be a camera pointed right at her. She stated point blank that she was not taking any questions concerning her wedding, the date, the venue, or her relationship with Oliver. This was about the opening of the newly renovated apartment building that Oliver had worked hard on. This was about Oliver's cause to provide decent housing to low income earners. It was Oliver's day and she was determined not to let anything over shadow it.

Felicity had even toned down her dress for the occasion, shying away from bright colours to wear a simple black and white pantsuit with simple black pumps, diamond stud earrings and her engagement ring. She wanted the focus entirely on Oliver and he looked dashing in his charcoal grey suit and navy tie. They almost didn't make it out of the hotel on time because Felicity had a strong urge to climb him like a tree.

The Governor of the state set up the stage in the parking lot of the apartment building as well as chairs for the invited guests to sit. After the newspaper article painted the officials in Las Vegas in a poor light they were pulling out all the stops to show the media that the situation had been resolved and everything was on the up and up again. The Governor was the first speaker taking the opportunity to outline his plans for the city and how his leadership had cleaned up the corruption. Felicity tuned out most of the speech preferring instead to place her hand gently on Oliver's knee to stop it from bouncing up and down. He was nervous and she focused her energy on keeping him calm.

Finally Oliver's turn came and he walked up to the podium with the speech Felicity had kept securely for him. She really didn't understand how he kept losing his copy of his speeches. The flashes were blindingly bright but Oliver managed to smile through it.

"Thank you for coming, I promise not to make this speech long but I have a few people to thank," Oliver said giving an outline of the people that helped make the apartment possible. She gave a very unladylike snort when he mentioned city officials; thankfully no one picked up on her rudeness. She could only imagine what the headline would have been the next day.

"And last on my list, is my beautiful fiancée," he said. Felicity looked at him surprised. That wasn't a part of his speech. "None of this would be possible without her. She is the light that guides my way," he said with a dopey look on his face. "She deserves to be up here with me when I hand out these keys," he said waving for her to join him on stage.

Felicity thought about staying seated but Moira, who was seated next to her, was encouraging her to go up on stage. She had no choice but to join him. She plastered on a fake smile and stood next to Oliver as he handed out the keys to the apartment. They already knew the tenants having interviewed them to ensure that they were really families that needed the help and not persons looking to take advantage of the rental prices. The mother of eight, who worked two jobs during the day and one at night practically tried to squeeze the life out of Oliver as she hugged him when he gave her the key to her apartment. The elderly couple, who lost their life savings because of a corrupt hedge fund manager, were crying tears of joy and the autistic son of another couple gave Oliver a painting.

**Nov –7**

After an exhausting week of trying to get both Alena and Barbara up to speed on all of the projects in QC, Felicity was ready to curl up on her couch with Oliver Friday night and sleep. She was surprised when she opened the door to their loft and found Thea waiting for her with Felicity's suitcase next to her.

"I hope you're ready for part two of your bachelorette?" Thea stated excitedly, "Because I packed you a suitcase for our trip."

"Trip? Don't you have finals coming up?" Felicity asked confused.

"Yes and I've been studying like mad but I need a break and a weekend getaway to the most exclusive spa on the west coast is the best way to relax," Thea revealed.

Felicity looked longingly at the couch, "I don't suppose I have a choice?"

"Nope," Thea said grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the apartment to the waiting limo downstairs.

"What about Oliver?" Felicity asked concerned.

"Please," Thea scoffed, "He'll be fine. He can live without you for two days."

During the drive to the private airstrip where the QC jet was held, Thea told Felicity of all the things they would be doing at the spa, facials, mud baths, reflexology, a trip to the sauna, manicure, pedicure as well as a few other beauty treatments that Felicity had never heard of.

When Felicity boarded the plane she was surprised to find, Moira, Susie, Alice and Samantha there. Thea had turned it into a girls' weekend away. Between Thea and Caitlin they had covered most of the woman Felicity would even have wanted at her party. She briefly wandered what Sara had in store for her.

After a morning of relaxing massages, they were in a large cabana by the pool drinking cocktails when Thea announced it was time for the ladies to give Felicity their gifts. The criteria for the gift was something that would make Oliver's jaw drop.

The first person up was Moira and she handed Felicity a small gift bag. Felicity reached into the bag and pulled a red lacy garment from the bag. Her jaw hit the ground. It was a very sheer camisole with matching thong. There was a red lace pattern woven through the outfit. Felicity could not believe that her future mother-in-law had brought her something so provocative.

"Oliver does love the colour red on you," Moira mused out loud to the girls.

Felicity felt her face flush. It sure was awkward getting sexy lingerie from your mother-in-law. It was actually the sort of thing her mother would have done during her relationship with Oliver. She remembered the care packages her mother used to send to her at MIT. There was always at least one box of condoms, her birth control pills, a new pair of sexy lingerie and whatever random thing her mother thought she needed.

Thea took a picture of her face and her phone pinged.

"Did you just send me that picture?" Felicity asked.

"I included you on the message I sent to Oliver," Thea said with a wicked gleam in her eye.

Felicity pulled out her phone and pulled up the message. The picture came up first. Her face was cherry red. Thea had captioned the picture: _Since you love red on your fiancée so much._

Oliver's reply came instantaneously: _Do not tease a man who has to survive the weekend without his girl. I might find my way out there._

Thea replied: _You wouldn't dare!_

Oliver: _Try me._

The conversation stopped there and Thea refocused her attention on the group. Susie was demanding to go next. A bellboy appeared under the cabana with a large box and placed it in front of Felicity. She eyed the box warily.

"It's not going to bite you," Susie said. "It's not like it's a stripper or something. These gifts are meant to drop Oliver's jaw not yours."

Felicity took the card off the top of the box and noted that Susie had signed it as being from Donna and her. The fact that Susie had thought to involve her mother in some way warmed her heart but at the same time her brain prepared her for something extremely embarrassing. She opened the box and pulled out a brown bikini type outfit.

"That's the Princess Leia outfit. I know how much you like your sci-fi and fantasy shows so I got you some interesting roleplaying outfits," Susie said proudly.

"Some?" Felicity questioned.

"About 15, I even got a sexy school uniform from that witchy book series you read," Susie said.

"Witch book series, you mean Harry Potter?" Felicity asked.

"Yeah that's it!" Susie said.

Felicity put the Princess Leia outfit away and closed the cover to the box. She'll review the contents in the privacy of her room. After Susie was Alice.

"I decided to try something other than lingerie," she said handing Felicity a small box.

Felicity gingerly opened the box and pulled out a pair of padded fluffy pink handcuffs.

"For days when you want a little bit of spice in your bedroom," Alice teased.

Felicity dropped the handcuffs back in the box as if they had burned her. These ladies were going to be the death of her.

The next up was Samantha.

"I also decided that I didn't want to go with lingerie," she said handing Felicity an envelope.

Felicity stared at it. How could and envelope make Oliver's jaw drop?

Samantha giggled, "Staring at it won't open it."

Felicity opened the envelope and found a gift card to a studio in Starling City that taught belly dancing and pole dancing.

"It's good for your health but it also has the added benefit of keeping your husband entertained," Samantha said with a wink.

"Oh if I had know you were getting her that I would have gotten her a pole for her bedroom too!" Susie exclaimed.

"That's an option for their first anniversary gift," Moira commented and all the ladies nodded their heads in agreement.

Thea was the last to go. "I got you something for your wedding night," she said mischievously.

Felicity was almost scared to open it but she was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful embroidered silk negligee. "It's perfect," Felicity said in awe.

"I know," Thea boasted. "I'm the best sister-in-law a girl could have,"

"You are," Felicity said pulling her in for a hug.

**Nov-8**

After Felicity had packed away all her gifts, including the outfits from Susie she went to sleep only to be awoken a few hours later by a knocking on her window. Her eyes opened and she looked over to the window to see Oliver.

"Oliver!" she rushed over and opened the window holding on to his shoulders to pull him inside, not that he needed the help. They collapsed in a pile below the window.

"What are you doing here? How did you get here? How did you get up to my window?" Felicity asked in a rush.

"The security at this place sucks! Last question first, I climbed up the outside trestle. I got here by driving up with Tommy and Laurel. They're booked into a hotel down the street. As for why I'm here, Thea challenged me to make you blush that red and I thought I would come and do it in person," Oliver said pulling her towards him.

The next day Oliver snuck out of her room early and left her to enjoy the rest of her day with the girls. When they returned to the Queen jet that night, Oliver was seated with a drink in his hand.

"What are you doing here Ollie!" his sister screeched.

"You issued a challenge and I'm sure Felicity can tell you how red I made her blush last night," Oliver said with a proud smirk. "Oh and by the way Alice, those handcuffs came in quite handy."

"OLIVER!" Felicity screeched embarrassed.

Oliver smiled and looked at Thea, "You see I made her blush again. No one makes her blush as red as I do!"

**Nov-9**

Felicity was in her office working when Jerry interrupted her at around 10:00am to tell her that Mr. Merlyn was there to see her. At first she thought it was Malcolm Merlyn but a quick look through the glass door revealed Tommy waving at her. She told Jerry to send him in.

"What do you want Tommy?" she asked as she continued to look over the report that the finance division had sent to her.

"Just a little bit of your time," Tommy answered with a charming smile.

Felicity dropped her head in her hands, "What did you do this time to piss Laurel off?"

"Hey I didn't do anything. Why would you think I did something?" Tommy asked dropping himself onto the small sofa in her office.

Felicity reluctantly got up and joined him. "Then why are you here Tommy?"

"I find myself in the unique position of being very good friends with my best friend's wife," he explained making it sound like it was a very big dilemma for him.

"One, we're not married yet and two, how is that unique?" Felicity asked.

Tommy laughed, "You've been so married since he moved in with you and its unique because I'm supposed to hate the evil hag that my best friend marries but you're not an evil hag, you're you and we are actually pretty good friends," Tommy explained.

"Did you come here just to tell me I'm not an evil hag?" Felicity asked.

"No. Oliver's bachelor party is this weekend," Tommy said.

"I'm aware," Felicity replied evenly.

"So I'm getting to party with him before the wedding and I kinda feel like I need to party with you too but wives aren't allowed at bachelor parties and no matter how much I beg Thea and Sara they refuse to let me anywhere near the events they have planned for you so I kind of have to do my own thing with you," Tommy explained.

"Let me get this straight," Felicity said rubbing her temples, "You're here because you want to take me to a party?"

"Not really. I was more thinking lunch," he revealed.

"Tommy's it 10am in the morning," Felicity said stating the obvious.

"That's the little catch. Lunch is a two hour flight away. I have the MG jet prepped already. I know this is your last week at work before the wedding so you can bring your tablet and work on the way but I really want to take you to lunch at this quaint little restaurant in Colorado. It's absolutely beautiful and I know you'll love it. I only take my close friends there, which essentially means only Ollie and Laurel have been. It's like our little secret place and I really want to include you in it," Tommy pleaded.

He was using his puppy dog face on her and usually Felicity could resist but she couldn't deny that she was extremely touched by the gesture and the effort he had already put in to plan the lunch. She sighed.

"Ok Tommy," she said walking over to her desk to pick up her tablet, purse and coat. "You got me for the rest of the day."

"Really that worked?" he asked surprised. "Because I was prepared to get down on my knees and beg."

"What kind of friend would I be if I made you get down on your knees," she replied with a little laugh.

He gave her a very large grin, "This is going to be so much fun."

**Nov -10**

The next day Felicity was surprised when Jerry informed her that she had a meeting with Robert Queen at 3:00pm in the afternoon. She knew she took the day off yesterday but she had gotten all of her work done. As far as she could tell everything was running smoothly. She knew she had next week off to ensure the plans for the wedding were going well but she would still be in Star City if anything went wrong. It was an excellent test run to see if her new managers could function without her. She spent most of the day worrying about her meeting with Robert Queen.

By the time the clock hit 2:55pm she had worked herself up into an anxious state. She had bitten through her nicely manicured nails, which for the record tasted awful with nail polish on it. Thea was so going to lecture her about that. She stepped out of her office and walked three doors down to Robert's. She glanced into Oliver's but she knew he was at a meeting with Walter.

Robert's EA waved her straight in.

"Mr. Queen you wanted to see me?" Felicity asked walking into his large office. Even though he insisted she call him Robert at home, she always kept things professional in the office. He would always be Mr. Queen her boss, not Robert her father-in-law, at work.

"Felicity," he said with a large smile on his face, "Please have a seat."

Felicity nodded and took a seat on the expensive sofa he used to entertain investors. He went to a cabinet that she knew housed his expensive liquor and he pulled out two scotch tumblers and the very expensive bottle of scotch he kept on hand for his most important investors. He poured a very healthy amount into each glass before walking over to the sofa and placing one on the coffee table in front of her. He then took a seat opposite her with his own glass.

"Are you firing me?" she asked nervously.

He laughed, "Absolutely not! You are the future of Queen Consolidated, you'll also be bearing the future heirs. The last thing I would do is piss you off. I do want to have a relationship with my grandchildren."

Felicity felt the heat rise on her face and she knew she was blushing. She picked up the glass and knocked the scotch back in one go. The burn of the liquid down her throat gave her something else to focus on.

"I asked you here because I just wanted a quiet moment before the wedding with you. I know work isn't really a suitable place but an hour off your job isn't going to sink the company. I think Tommy proved that yesterday when he stole you away for the day," Robert said pleasantly.

Felicity was surprised. Why did people suddenly want to spend time with her before the wedding?

"Felicity, Queen men are hard to love. I could list all of our faults but I'm positive you already know them. Our wealth and fame doesn't make marriage any easier. In fact it probably makes it harder with the added pressure from the media. One half of the gossip columns will probably be waiting for a divorce. They'll blow every little fight, every little sour look between you two out of proportion and the other half of columns will be watching your waistline. The minute you stomach looks to be getting bigger, they're going to announce to the world that you're pregnant, whether or not you actually 've lived the last few months under the constant eye of the media and that will not change after you're married. It is a part of your life now. You can either ignore them or let them get to you. There will be days when they will say the nastiest things about you or Oliver. I have survived this long by ignoring them. I have a PR department, it's their job to deal with them. Half the time I have no idea what's being said and I think that's for the best. It allows me to focus my energy on the things that matter. I advise you do the same thing."

Felicity nodded her head. She tried to have as little as possible to do with the media. "I will do my very best," Felicity stated.

"Then I have nothing to worry about but if for some reason the pressure becomes too great, Moira and I are here for you too. Feel free to talk to us," Robert offered.

Felicity smiled fondly at him, "I'll try to remember that."

"Great, would you like another glass?" he offered.

**Nov-11**

Oliver insisted that he was writing his own vows for their wedding and it made Felicity feel like she should write her own. She had a piece of paper in front of her and she had written four words in half an hour, I love you, Oliver. She had not been able to get any further than that and it was pissing her off.

What was wrong with the traditional vows? They covered everything but the vow not to abuse technology. She could just see herself standing in front of the officiant babbling away because she was nervous and had forgotten what she had written. Everyone would probably laugh at her which would then cause Oliver to glare at everyone in her defence. It would ruin their wedding. Perhaps she could have the officiant read the traditional vows for her so that the only thing her mouth had to say was "I do." Oliver could still say his own vows but then would it look like she didn't put any effort into her vows? Would people think she didn't love Oliver enough to write her own vows? Would they think that there love was one-sided? That she had somehow taken advantage of a lovesick Oliver and trapped him in a marriage of her own design?

Felicity shook her head to clear those thoughts away. It didn't matter what other people thought, it only mattered what Oliver thought. He knew she loved him. She showed him how much she loved him every day. She showed him when she washed the dishes after he cooked, when she sat with him through the football, baseball, basketball games on TV even though she had no idea about sports, she showed him when she indulged him in his constant need for socks. She showed him when he was tired and she rubbed his shoulders for him, heck she even showed him when she gave his jealous and possessive streak a little leeway to pull her away from men he didn't like.

There could be no doubt in his mind that she loved him with every ounce of her being. Oliver was it for her and she would fight to make sure that their promise of forever, really became forever. Perhaps she should write that down. It sounded very vow worthy. She picked up her pen and started adding to her notes. She was really going to have to keep a piece of paper tucked away in her dress if she planned on saying her vows the way she wrote them down.

**Nov-12**

It was the last weekend before her wedding. Oliver had gone out with the guys for his bachelor party earlier in the night. Tommy had arrived, on time for a change, and with a promise that they wouldn't end up in jail, he swept Oliver away from her. She hoped he had fun and he enjoyed himself.

Felicity was just settling down with a nice glass of red wine and her Netflix account when there was a knock at the door. She wasn't expecting any company and it was way too soon for Oliver to be back unless it was a police officer knocking to say they had been arrested for running through the streets of Starling City butt naked. She turned the channel on the TV away from her Netflix account to the security camera that monitored the corridor outside. She knew if she had just gotten up to answer the door without checking she was pretty sure a voice in her head that sounded strangely like Diggle's would have lectured her. The camera revealed Sara on her crutches, Nyssa holding two bags and Lyla also holding two bags in the corridor. Sara impatiently reached up and knocked again. Felicity rushed over to the door.

"Sara!" she said opening the door wide.

"Felicity! It's about damn time. We've been standing out here forever," she complained.

"I had to check the security cameras to make sure it was safe to answer the door," Felicity said defending herself.

"Diggle will be pleased," Lyla said pushing past Felicity into the apartment.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.

"This is part three also known as the 'We're getting hammered party,' but don't worry since Lyla's pregnant she's the designated sober person," Sara said. "And speaking of pregnancy today's breaking news, Laurel is pregnant!"

"Already!" Felicity asked surprised.

"Yes, she claims it is a honeymoon baby but I think it's from the makeup sex before the wedding but what's really important is that she opted to stay home and rest and not join us!" Sara trumpeted.

"I'm sure it wouldn't have been that bad," Lyla said from her position at the island where she and Nyssa were unpacking the bags. There were bottles of salted nuts, bags of chips and dip and several bottles of alcohol that included tequila, vodka, rum, a bunch of liquors.

"Did Oliver get the bar all sorted out?" Sara asked curiously as she used her crutches to go over to the sofa.

"I think so. I know Oliver has a signature drink for the wedding. He's calling it Overwatch," Felicity revealed.

Lyla frowned, "Overwatch?"

"He claims it packs a punch and in no time your watch will be over," Felicity explained.

"Sounds corny," Sara commented.

"Let's start with my beloved favourite cocktail," Nyssa said setting up three glasses in front of her.

"Great idea love," Sara agreed.

While Nyssa worked on the drinks, Lyla poured herself some orange juice.

"So I hear Tommy absconded with you for the day?" Sara asked poking Felicity in the side.

"Yeah, it was actually quite fun. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life, particularly when he showed me the scrap book," Felicity said.

"Wait, you got to see the Infamous Tommy Merlyn Prank Scrap Book," Sara asked in utter disbelief!

"Yes," Felicity said with a large smile.

"I don't think even Oliver has gotten to see it," Sara protested. "He protects that book like it's the Holy Grail or something."

"Oliver doesn't need to see it. He did 99% of those pranks with Tommy," Felicity said.

"It's not fair. I've been begging Tommy to see it for years," Sara sulked crossing her hands over her chest.

"Perhaps when you get married to Nyssa he might show it to you then," Felicity said teasing Sara.

"Did he tell you not to abuse Oliver?" Lyla asked curiously. "I remember when I married Diggle his best friend in the army gave me a long speech about treating Johnny right."

"Actually, Oliver never came up as a point of discussion. We aren't friends because of Oliver, we are actually friends," Felicity said.

When everyone stared at her blankly she added, "It makes sense in my head."

Nyssa arrived with three glasses of an electric blue cocktail and they started their night of debauchery.

The next day Felicity awoke in her bed with a pounding headache. The curtains were drawn shut and Oliver was flat on his back next to her. She could make out the blurry outline of a glass of water on her night stand and two little dots she hoped was pain killers because she really needed them. The last thing she remembered was taking shots while playing some stupid card game downstairs. She wondered how she got upstairs and her mind provided her with a blurry image of Diggle and Slade helping Oliver up the stairs while Roy and Tommy helped her. She didn't bother looking at the clock to see the time. She was going to spend the rest of the day in bed. She picked up the glass of water and downed the tablets.

She collapsed back on the bed and moved over to cuddle up next to Oliver. Even though he seemed asleep his hand automatically moved to accommodate her at his side. She realised that in exactly a week they would be waking up as husband and wife for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only the wedding is left now!


	13. December - The Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Arrow. This is the chapter I'm sure you've all been waiting for so I made it the longest chapter of the story. Warning, this wedding is very different from any other wedding. I changed a few of the normal traditions. I think I should also put a tissue warning up but there are a few scenes in this chapter that made me cry.

Felicity wiped the sweat from her forehead as she put the last chair in place. Could someone remind her again why she chose to set up the tables and chairs for the wedding herself? Would it really have been that bad if they hired someone to do it? Why did she think that it wouldn't be hard because she had a small wedding? She looked over at Oliver and he didn't even appear tired at all. Was she really that unfit? Perhaps she should take up some form of exercise in the New Year. Oliver had been trying to get her to go running with him on mornings.

She sat down on the recently positioned chair to take a mini break and looked around the restaurant. The wedding was the next day and the setup was coming along nicely. Thea, Caitlin and Iris were putting all the seat coverings on while Barry sped around to each chair and tied the green ribbon on the back. Felicity always thought Thea was fast but Barry really got things done in a flash! Moira handled the setup for the tables, placing the white tablecloths on them herself and then instructing Oliver how to position the centre pieces onto the table. She then supervised the staff of the restaurant as they lay the table with the plates, cutlery, glasses and napkins.

Curtis had outdone himself with the centrepieces. His design consisted of a miniature groom Oliver shooting an arrow through the wedding bouquet that the miniature bride Felicity held above her head. The figures stood on a glass case. Inside the case was a series of gears and a conveyor belt. The arrow that the miniature Oliver shot would land on a conveyor belt that returned the arrow to Oliver for him to shoot again. You could watch how the whole system interacted to return the arrow to Oliver. It was a combination of mechanical engineering and programming. It worked well and Felicity was grateful that there was nothing that could cause it to explode.

Robert, Tommy, Alice, Susie and Samantha were working on the decorations, or at least they were supposed to be, the amount of laughter she heard from that group made her wonder what was so funny. They had a very tight schedule today. They needed to finish the interior setup by 2:00pm so that they could then set up outside and have the rehearsal before they had dinner.

Jitters soon arrived and set up their coffee bar. The desserts Moira ordered arrived and were placed in the refrigerated container out back. When the DJ arrived Oliver took him to his assigned position. They started setting up the speakers and then doing their sound checks. The last thing to arrive was her cake, which Felicity marvelled at. It was exactly how she envisioned it. She was so enamoured with it, Thea had to pull her away from the container so that they could close the door without locking her in.

When she returned inside she found Oliver setting up a screen and projector at the back of the room and she had no idea what it was for. There was no longer a programme for the wedding. After spending days working on one, Tommy had taken one look at the draft and somehow convinced Oliver that no programme was needed. Tommy then proceeded to work on convincing her. He asked her to trust him and he assured her that it would work out wonderfully. She caved. She hoped she had placed her faith wisely because she hadn't heard about any activity that required a projector and screen.

Once they were finished inside they went outside to set up. They would be getting married outside in a short ceremony. Felicity again found herself moving chairs around. There were supposed to be fifty chairs on the groom's side and fifty chairs on the bride's side with a wide aisle in the middle so that Thea, Diggle, Iris and Bob could walk up the aisle with the Chuppah. Sara was trying to be stubborn, insisting that she could hobble up the aisle on her crutches but Felicity nixed that idea in the bud. She changed the plans so that the only people to walk down the aisle before her were the Chuppah bearers. Caitlin and Sara would stand and wait for her at the end of aisle opposite the positions that Tommy and Roy took up.

Once they got the chairs setup with most of the decorations, the fresh flowers were arriving the next day and the restaurant staff would be adding the finishing touches, they began their rehearsal. Felicity loved her Chuppah. The rods which her bearers would hold were wrapped in green cloth with white flowers above and below where they would hold the poles. The canopy was white with green lacy trim hanging down around the rim of the Chuppah. A large bunch of green roses marked each corner.

Thea, Iris, Diggle and Bob practiced walking up the aisle with the Chuppah. The first attempt had been less than stellar. When Thea was excited she had a penchant for rushing through things. She tried to speed down the aisle only to be held back by the others who were going much slower than her. She nearly tore the Chuppah in half. Felicity then decided to switch the girls from being the front pole bearers to being the back. That way Thea would be forced to match her pace to Diggle and Bob. The next attempts improved.

After they finished, Felicity then practiced her walk down the aisle to Oliver. She was determined to make the walk by herself. She wasn't some prized possession to be given away. It was her decision to marry Oliver and she didn't need anyone to escort her down the aisle. Since their guests were not there yet Felicity decided to goof around. She would stick her tongue out at Oliver when she reached the top of the aisle or she would playfully pretended to change her mind and run to Thea declaring her undying love to that Queen. Thea was more than happy to play along and push her brother out of the groom's position. Oliver was less than thrilled and his grumpy face made more than one appearance. Felicity was all too happy to kiss the grumpy face away.

When they were finished, everything inside and outside was perfect, exactly how she planned but she had this niggling feeling that something was going to go wrong. She didn't believe everything could go so smoothly. All through the rehearsal dinner the feeling haunted her. She started to think of every disaster that could happen. The tables might collapse in on themselves under the weight of Curtis's centrepieces, a storm might come through and blow away all her chairs, the restaurant might get robbed overnight, the backup generator to keep the refrigerated container cool might fail in a power outage; there were so many scenarios on her mind. Oliver placed his hand on hers and squeezed her hand softly. He always knew when something was bothering her.

Felicity pushed aside the feeling and forced herself to eat, making sure to stuff herself because her fast began in the morning. She would not be eating until after they said their vows. When dinner was finished they settled into an easy conversation about the mechanics of Curtis's centrepiece. Bob used the opportunity to pull her away from the table to speak to her in private. He handed her an unlabelled DVD and made her promise that she would watch it as soon as she returned to her hotel suite. She put the DVD in her purse and returned to the table. She noticed that Oliver was observing her carefully.

After saying goodbye to the manager, Oliver drove her and his family back to the hotel they were staying at. She was most disappointed to see the storm of paparazzi that were outside the main entrance of the hotel. Even the car park entrance had a horde waiting for them.

"They weren't supposed to know where we were staying!" Felicity complained.

"I'll speak to the manager about it," Robert said angrily.

They had checked in under aliases and put the rest of the Moira's and Robert's family in other hotels to throw the paparazzi off the trail. An insider at the hotel had to have tipped them off. It was too late to switch hotels and the paparazzi would just follow them to the new hotel anyway.

**Dec-2**

Felicity stared at the unlabelled DVD video in her hands. Oliver seemed to know what the DVD was and he disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower leaving her seated at the breakfast table in their hotel suite. That confused Felicity even more. Bob had handed it to her with no explanation of what was on it. She pulled out her laptop that Oliver had insisted she bring with her and placed the DVD in it. She stared at the bathroom door wondering what was going on. The shower wasn't running yet but he could be busy shaving. The window asking Felicity if she wanted to play the DVD was waiting on the screen for her to decide what to do. She clicked play. Donna's smiling face appeared on the screen in front of her.

"Hi Baby Girl," her mother said brightly.

Felicity burst into tears instantly. She must have sobbed loudly because the bathroom door flew open with a loud bang and a shirtless Oliver rushed out to her. He knelt beside her and wrapped her in his strong embrace.

"It's ok," he said putting the video on pause.

She didn't know why she was crying but it was just so jarring to see her mother on the screen so full of life talking to her when she was dead, gone over a year. She pulled away from Oliver and wiped at her eyes, "I'm ok," she said trying to control herself and stop the tears from falling. It was ridiculous to fall apart over a video. His concern showed clearly in his eyes.

"Perhaps we should have warned you first what was on the DVD," he admitted guiltily standing up.

"Stay with me," Felicity said reaching for his hand and intertwining their fingers.

"Are you sure?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes," she replied. She wanted him with her.

"Ok. Let's watch this somewhere more comfortable then," Oliver suggested picking up the laptop and moving over to the bed. He leaned against the head board and indicated for Felicity to sit between his legs. She did as told and leaned against him with her legs straight out in front of her. He placed the laptop on her lap and wrapped his arms around.

"You ready to start over?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said reaching for the pad on the laptop and setting the video to play from the beginning again. She was ready to hear what her mother had to say.

"Hi Baby girl, if you're watching this then the doctors were right. I'm sorry I can't physically be there for you on your special day. I can only imagine how hard it was for you to plan it without my help. I want to tell you how proud I am of you. For the record, I'm not proud because you're getting married, I do still remember that phase you went through where marriage was a curse word, but I'm proud because of the incredible woman you have turned out to be. I tried to give you what I could and knowing that I didn't screw you up, means the world to me. I have no regrets Felicity but I suppose I should be giving you advice about your big day. Marriage can be hard at times. Compromise is important. You are very stubborn just remember that on the rare occasion your husband will be right."

"Rare!" Oliver protested and Felicity chuckled.

"Felicity I love you and I will always love you wherever I am. Walk down that aisle tomorrow and claim your man. I wish you a long and happy marriage," she said blowing a kiss at the end of the video before the screen went dark.

Felicity started to tear up again. Oliver held her tight. "She loved you very much," he told her.

"I just wish I had had more time with her. There were so many years we lost. All that time wasted," Felicity said sadly. "I shouldn't have fought her on so many things. I should have been a better daughter."

"And you heard your mother. She has no regrets. The things you went through helped shape the person that you are today Felicity. She knew that and more importantly she understood why it happened. Your mother died knowing the type of person you were and she was extremely proud of you. Whatever you're feeling about the past, it's time to let it go and move on," Oliver advised.

She turned to look at him, "When did you get so wise?" she asked.

"When I started dating you," he responded.

She kissed him softly savouring the moment between them. When she pulled away she rested her forehead against his.

"How about we thoroughly enjoy our last night as an engaged couple?" he asked with a mischievous tone.

"Absolutely," Felicity agreed.

**Dec-3**

Felicity awoke to the sound of knocking at the door. Oliver was already dressed holding a hanger bag with his tuxedo in it. He would be going to get ready in another suite with the guys. From the impatient knocking it was obviously Thea. Oliver didn't seem to care; he covered the distance from the bathroom door to the bed in two strides and firmly kissed her.

"I'll see you in a few hours Mrs. Queen," he said with a dopey smile on his face.

A teasing smile crossed Felicity's face, "I hope I can survive those hours, Mr. Smoak."

"You will. They know there will be hell to pay if you don't make it to me in one piece," he said. With one last kiss he made his way towards the door and opened it letting in Thea who beelined to Felicity.

Thea dragged Felicity out of bed declaring that there was a lot to do and a short amount of time to do it in. She sent Felicity to have a bath first while she arranged everything in the suite. Felicity grumbled all the way to the shower. Why didn't Oliver wake her up to have a shower with him? That certainly would have been much nicer.

She still had that nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong. She let the hot water pour over her body hoping that it would relax her and chase that feeling away. All too soon, Thea was banging on the door informing her that her allotted shower time was finished. Felicity begrudgingly turned off the shower and dried off, wrapping the bath robe around her and putting her hair in a towel.

When she stepped out of the bathroom she was surprised to see that Sara, Caitlin and Iris had arrived. Their four dresses were hanging next to Felicity's wedding dress and there were five chairs set up for each of them to get their make-up and hair done. The wedding photographer was also there taking pictures of the setup. Thea shuffled Felicity into her chair and they all started with their hair.

While their hair was being done there was a knock at the door. Thea jumped off her chair to go and answer it. Tommy walked in with his eyes covered. Unsurprisingly, he was still in his jeans and a top. The guys wouldn't need to get ready for another two hours.

"Are you decent?" he asked.

"We're all good," Sara replied.

"We have a problem," Tommy said removing his hands from his eyes.

Felicity stomach hit the floor, "Is Oliver ok? He was fine when he left the room. So help me Tommy if you got him into any trouble!" Felicity threatened.

"Why does everyone assume that I get Oliver into trouble? The last time I checked he was perfectly capable of getting into trouble himself," Tommy retorted.

"Get to the point," Iris said. "Why are you here?"

"Oliver asked Digg to do a perimeter check to see which exit would be safe for us to leave from and well apparently every possible exit is covered with at least fifty paparazzi. Digg says there is no way out without them knowing and following behind us," Tommy revealed. "Oliver would have come tell you himself but the girls told him he wasn't allowed to see you."

"Pity we can't zip line from here to the other hotel," Thea said pointing across the street.

A light bulb went off in Felicity's head, "Helicopter! We can use the roof as an exit point. There is a landing pad up there. I know you guys were supposed to leave half an hour ahead of us but I think you should get ready and leave now. That will give you enough time to drive through the city and lose anyone following you. Digg is great at that," Felicity ordered.

"Ok, I'll inform Oliver and the guys," Tommy said turning around to leave. The photographer followed Tommy out to take pictures of the guys getting ready.

Felicity jumped off her chair and walked over to her phone. She called an old friend and arranged for a helicopter to pick them up half an hour before the wedding.

"Alright chopper's all arranged," Felicity announced happily.

"Great," Thea said, "I ordered room service while you were on the phone. I'm starving."

"Ok but I won't be eating anything," Felicity said hopping back onto her chair to finish off her hair and start her makeup.

By the time the makeup artist started working on her foundation, room service arrived. Felicity found she wasn't the slightest bit tempted to eat anything they ordered. She tuned out the girls in the background and focused on staying still for the makeup artist. She heard a brief commotion behind her and Sara cry out in pain before a plate of food made an arc through her vision and landed in the middle of her wedding dress. Felicity blinked. Had she imagined that?

"Oh My God!" Sara said. "I'm so sorry Felicity."

Felicity turned to look at Sara who was on the floor on top of Caitlin.

"What just happened?" Felicity asked. She still wasn't sure if what she thought just happened, happened.

"Thea dropped sauce on the ground and Sara's crutches slipped. Sara tried to keep her balance but she bounced into Caitlin who had a plate full of food that went, well it went flying into your wedding dress," Iris explained. All the women in the room looked shocked even the women doing their makeup.

"We have to fix this," Thea declared horrified.

"Maybe we can wash it out?" Caitlin said looking at the large red stain on the front of the dress.

Felicity looked at the stain and started laughing. It was hilariously funny for some reason that she really didn't understand. Her emotions were all over the place these days. She kept waiting for something to go wrong and finally something had gone wrong. Maybe it was her own negative thoughts that caused the whole thing to happen. Felicity closed her eyes and counted backwards from five. There was nothing that she could do to fix it. On the bright side, that feeling that had been bugging her since yesterday had disappeared.

She looked at the photographer, "Please take a picture of the dress. We should probably record this for the grandchildren. It will make a fabulous wedding story in the future."

"Are you sure?" the photographer asked.

"Yes," Felicity said hopping off the chair.

"Felicity we are going to get the stain out," Thea said with a determined look on her face.

"We could also get a new dress," Caitlin suggested meekly.

Felicity closed her eyes and tried not to focus on the ruined wedding dress. What was important was marrying Oliver and not the dress. Oliver wouldn't care if she walked down the aisle in a potato sack as long as he got to marry her in the end. An idea started forming in her head for a new direction for her wedding.

"Ok you girls, here's what's going to happen. You're going to put on your bridesmaid dresses and get in that helicopter when it arrives. You are also going to give Oliver this," Felicity said walking over to his closet in the suite and pulling out one of his dress pants.

"Pants?" Thea asked confused.

"Yeap. Tell him to change into it. I'll give you the shirt when I arrive," Felicity explained. To implement her idea she needed Oliver in his dress pants and not the tuxedo pants.

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Sara asked.

"Nope, I'm going to walk through the front door," Felicity said.

The girls started protesting but Felicity ignored them. She went back into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She washed her hair again removing all the styling products in it and scrubbed her face clean. She remerged from bathroom to see that the girls were working on the dress with a host of stain removal products.

"Thea just send the dress to be dry cleaned. I'm not wearing it today," Felicity said adamantly.

"Your hair! We just spent an hour doing that," Thea cried.

Felicity ignored her. She went to her side of the closet and pulled out the red dress that Oliver first met her in. She had found it when she was clearing out her closet at home to donate her clothes to charity. It was an activity that Moira and Thea did ever year. The Queen women never wore the same thing more than once to public events and naturally that caused clothes accumulate. Moira donated her clothes to a secret battered woman's shelter in The Glades. Thea donated hers to two charities, one that provided prom dresses to teenagers that couldn't afford one and the other that provided clothes to children. Thea went the extra mile and gathered kids clothes from socialites in their circle so that she could donate clothes that ranged from toddlers right up to young adults.

Moira encouraged Felicity to find her own charity to donate to. She found a group that worked with single mothers trying to find them jobs and provide some basic job training and interview skills. The women often needed work appropriate clothing and most of her clothes suited that need. Felicity also passed on the information to Sally so that when QC needed temps, they could use some of these women. It would give them great experience and look good on their resume.

Almost her entire wardrobe had been donated but Felicity didn't have the heart to part with this particular dress. She was originally going to wear it at the rehearsal dinner but after working so hard to set up the wedding she was too lazy to change into it for the rehearsal dinner. If there was ever a time to wear it, it was now. Moira did say that Oliver loved her in red, well he was getting her in red for their wedding.

She flat ironed her hair straight and gathered it in a half pony in the back just like the day she met Oliver. She applied her own light make-up with her signature red lipstick that she knew Oliver loved. She took out her contacts and put her glasses on. She surveyed herself in the mirror. The red dress clung to her body and stopped just above her knees. This was not how she imagined getting married but it was the best alternative.

Felicity walked out of her room and her bridesmaids stared at her, "See you at the wedding," she said picking up her purse on the way out.

"Wait, Felicity you can't be serious," Thea asked. "We're getting the stain out."

"I am serious," Felicity said just before she shut the door.

**Dec-4**

She closed the door to the suite behind her. Her decision was final she wasn't going back on it. She could hear the girls in the room debating what to do; if they should leave her be or go after her. Felicity found she was strangely content with her decision and made her way to the elevator. After a minute of waiting it opened and she went down to the lobby. She walked over to the front desk to order a taxi. When the doorman notified her that the taxi was waiting outside, she took a deep breath and walked right out the front door of the hotel and into the crowd of paparazzi. It felt like the old saying, out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Felicity, where is your wedding?"

"Felicity, what time is your wedding?"

"Felicity, shouldn't you be in your wedding dress already?"

"Felicity, is the wedding cancelled?"

"Felicity, where are you going?"

"Felicity, Oliver left over an hour ago, is your engagement over?"

So many questions flew at her as the media jostled to get closer to her and stick either their recording devices or cameras in her face. The doorman bravely tried to push everyone away from her as he escorted her to the taxi. The barrage of questions never stopped.

"Are you still together?"

"Did he cheat on you?"

"Who broke off the wedding, you or him?"

"What does this mean for you job at Queen Consolidated?"

"Are you going to give him back the ring?"

She ignored everyone and followed the doorman through the crowd to the taxi. She stepped straight into the taxi and asked him to drive. She was aware that several of the photographers jumped into cars to follow them. She asked the taxi to take her to a mall she knew well. She gave him a $100 bill for the fare and told him to keep the change for the trouble he was going to get from the paparazzi.

She went into the mall and walked straight to a men's store. She bought Oliver an expensive light grey polo shirt similar to what he had on the day they met. She exited the store to see the paparazzi were searching the mall for her. She used to work at this mall during her summer vacations. She knew every entrance and exit. She used the employee exit that lead into a small side street. From there she ducked through a few side alleys to make her way two blocks over to where there was an exotic car rental place.

There was not a paparazzi in sight when she walked through the doors. She went to the counter and pulled out her credit card placing it on the counter in front of the clerk.

"I need a car," she said to the girl.

The girl eyed the black amex car, "Would a Porsche do?" she asked.

"That'll be perfect," Felicity said with a large smile.

The clerk took her card and swiped it while Felicity filled out the necessary paperwork to rent the car for a day. Once that was complete she followed the rental agent into the lot to a black Porsche.

"I should have mentioned this one's manual," the agent said.

"Even better," Felicity said pulling out a hundred dollar bill and handing it to the girl, "I was never here. If I see a single post on social media about this, I'll know it was you."

"Ok," the girl said taking the crisp hundred dollar bill while she handed Felicity the entry key for the car.

Felicity opened the door and relaxed into the leather seat of the car. Robert Queen had a thing for sports cars and she had learned to appreciate them in the last year. Oliver loved to steal the keys to one of his father's cars and take her for a drive up or down the coast. He even let her drive a few times which was how she learned to drive a manual. She pushed the start button and the engine roared to life. She put her hand on the gear stick and shifted into first gear.

She made her way out of the city quickly and onto the road that would take her south towards the restaurant. The traffic wasn't too bad. She was tempted to break the speed limit but the last thing she needed was a speeding ticket. She would never hear the end of it from Oliver. She already complained about the amount of points he had accumulated on his license.

She let herself appreciate the design of the car and the way the car responded every time she changed gears. It was a beautifully designed piece of machinery. She heard the message alert on her phone start to go off but she ignored it. She was determined to enjoy the drive. The message alerts soon turned into phone calls and those went unanswered as well. Why did they have no faith that when she said she would see them at the wedding that she would see them at the wedding?

Forty five minutes into the drive, she saw the helicopter pass over her. A giggle bubbled out of her. This was going to be the weirdest wedding ever but it was their wedding.

**Dec-5**

She arrived in the restaurant car park to find the girls waiting for her with Moira. All of the shuttles were parked behind the area that was sectioned off for the wedding ceremony and it effectively blocked the guests from seeing her. She got out of the car grabbing the bag with the shirt for Oliver.

"Thank God! We had no idea where you were?" Thea exclaimed.

"I was driving. I didn't exactly want to get a ticket for talking and driving," Felicity explained.

"Felicity dear, Thea explained to me what happened. We picked up some dress alternatives that you can wear," Moira said.

"No, I've made up my mind," she said turning to Caitlin. "Cait, can you give this shirt to Oliver and ask him to wear it with the pants I sent instead of the tux."

"We haven't given him the pants yet," Caitlin admitted.

"Well then go and give him both," she said glancing at her phone, "We start in five minutes."

Caitlin looked uncertainly between Felicity and Moira before she took the shirt from Felicity and headed inside.

"Felicity, perhaps you should reconsider this course of action?" Moira suggested.

"No," Felicity answered firmly. "I don't want to see any other wedding dress. I've made peace with what happened to the dress I chose and I just want to go ahead and marry Oliver. Honestly that is the only thing, I want to do right now."

Moira clamped her mouth shut and signalled to Thea to go ahead and get the Chuppah prepared. Felicity hid behind one of the shuttles and peeked at the guests. They were all seated. Oliver wasn't anywhere to be seen yet but that was probably because he was changing. Bob, Diggle, Thea and Iris had the Chuppah ready and were waiting for their cue to walk down the aisle. Oliver soon returned, in his new outfit which caused a stir among the guests. The music started to play and Bob and Diggle started walking down the aisle with Thea and Iris following behind.

When they were at the top, she stepped out and walked to the beginning of the aisle. There was more chatter from the guests. She looked down the aisle to Oliver. He had a huge smile on his face. That was the only thing that mattered. As the music started to play a blue butterfly fluttered its way in front of her. It was a pipevine swallowtail. She had researched its name after the last time she saw it. The butterfly flew in circle in front of her.

"Little one, you're blocking my way. I kind of need to start walking down the aisle," Felicity said to it.

The butterfly didn't stop. Felicity moved hesitantly forward and butterfly adjusted its distance away from her. She idly wondered if the butterfly thought her red dress was a flower. As she moved up the aisle and butterfly continued to fly frantically in front of her. She managed to make it halfway up the aisle before the butterfly landed on the ground in front of her. The music had stopped playing as she was supposed to be under the Chuppah by now. She looked up at Oliver to find him breaking with tradition and coming down the aisle to meet her halfway.

As he passed the butterfly it flew into the air again.

Oliver took her hand in his. "Do I need to protect you from the big bad butterfly?" he teased.

She lightly tapped his chest, "Of course not but I do appreciate the sentiment."

A throat cleared and they turned to find their officiant had followed Oliver down the aisle.

"I assume we are ready?" he asked.

"In the middle of the aisle?" Felicity questioned.

"Why not, it's where your groom has met you?" he pointed out.

"I guess. Everything is so different already. Why not break one more tradition while we're at it," Felicity said and Oliver chuckled beside her.

"Let us begin then," the officiant said.

There was the sound of chairs scraping against the ground as the guests in front started to readjust the seating to get a better view of the ceremony. The officiant paused to give them time. When they were finished there were two semi-circles of guests on either side of them. Thea, Iris, Diggle and Bob came back down the aisle with the Chuppah so that it covered them. The butterfly landed on one of the flowers on the Chuppah.

"We are gathered here today to join these two persons in holy matrimony. The bride has asked me to get straight to the point so I will invite the groom, who wrote his own vows to recite them." He turned to look at Oliver.

Oliver stared at Felicity lovingly while his thumb rubbed soothing circles on the back of her hands.

"Felicity before I met you, I had no plan to be the person I am today. I didn't want any responsibility, I was allergic to commitment and I was positive that I was going to be single for the rest my life. You changed everything. You showed me a better way. I couldn't resist your kindness, your generosity, your passion, your intelligence and in return for my friendship you gave me your trust and your heart as well. You taught me what partnership was. The way that you make me feel is the best part of my life. You are my always Felicity Smoak. I will love you for the rest of my life," Oliver said before giving her a roguish grin and adding, "Oh and I vow not to abuse technology."

Felicity wanted to jump him right there. She had never heard a speech so perfect in her life before. What had she done to have this wonderful man in her life? Her eyes were watering and she gently pulled one of her hands away from Oliver's to wipe them.

The official turned to Felicity. Realising that it was her turn for her vows, she reached into her top and pulled out her vows, "To make sure I stay on topic," she said as she unfurled the piece of paper.

There was a chorus of chuckles from the guests and as expected Oliver turned to glare at everyone. That shut them up real quick. Once Felicity had her paper opened and she felt she was in a stable enough state to open her mouth and talk, she began.

"Oliver you opened my heart in a way I didn't think possible. I love you Oliver and I will always be in love with you. I promise to fight for us and never give up. I vow that we will be together until death. I will not let us break apart. I promise to be in love with you until the very end. You are my one and only, my forever and always, the love of my life, my soulmate. Whatever our future holds, I promise we will face it together. I love you Oliver Queen."

At this point, Oliver threw tradition out the window yet again and kissed her. She didn't think her vows were that great compared to his. She had filled it with a few I love yous so it would sound long but she wouldn't complain about the kiss.

The officiant quickly broke them apart reminding the eagle couple that they hadn't reached that part of the ceremony yet. He called for the rings and Felicity cursed herself for wanting the ring part after the vows. She wanted them to exchange vows first and then savour the moment after when they slid the ring onto each other's finger. She didn't think she could concentrate on the vows if he was sliding the ring up her finger at the same time.

Moira calmly walked down the aisle with both rings. Felicity was extremely pleased with the rings. Oliver's came out exactly as she had envisioned. Hers matched his but there were a few subtle differences here and there. When she had it on her finger she could inspect it closer. She picked up Oliver's ring quickly.

"With this ring I thee wed," she said as she slid the ring onto his ring finger.

At this point the officiant gave up. He had lost control of the ceremony long ago.

Oliver repeated the same words and slid her ring onto her finger.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride," the official rushed out because they were halfway to the kiss.

Oliver pulled her flush against him and kissed her. Felicity was vaguely aware of the catcalls from Thea and Tommy. When they broke apart Oliver looked deep into her eyes. The depth of emotions she saw in him blew her away.

Tommy appeared and provided him with the glass to break. That was one Jewish tradition that Oliver insisted he wanted. The glass was placed on the ground in front of Oliver.

"Go ahead Oliver, it will be the last time you ever get to put your foot down," Tommy joked.

Oliver ignored Tommy and stomped on the glass breaking. It signalled the end of the wedding ceremony. Instead of walking down the aisle, Oliver decided they would go up the aisle to the front where they were supposed to get married and then into the restaurant through the back door and then to the manager's office where they would break the fast and sign the official paperwork to be married.

**Dec-6**

They were joined in the office by the officiant and their witnesses, Thea and Tommy. Once the paperwork was signed, the manager entered and hustled everyone out. He had a tray of quesadillas with him and placed it on the table. He congratulated them and left quickly to give them some alone time.

"I'm starving," Oliver admitted.

Felicity looked at him curiously, "Didn't you eat lunch?"

"No, you were fasting for us so I thought I would do the same. The groom is supposed to fast as well," he pointed out.

Felicity picked up a quesadilla off the tray and held it to his mouth for him to take a bit. He did as she wanted and then he picked up one from the tray for her to eat as well. They were breaking their fast together. Oliver sat in one of the chairs placed there for them and pulled her on to his lap. She automatically encircled her arms around his neck.

"Are you wearing suspenders under this shirt?" Felicity asked.

"Yeap," Oliver said. "I know how much you like them."

Felicity smiled at her thoughtful husband.

"You remembered this dress from the first day we met?" she asked.

"Not the dress, You!" Oliver said. "I remembered you hopping up on the bar stool, me assuming you wanted a beer and you asking for red wine instead. You took us back to the beginning."

"We started our friendship like this and it turned out beautiful. Why not start our marriage the same way?" she explained.

"You know Thea feels really awful. She was practically in tears when she explained to me what happened. She said you looked really beautiful but I don't understand how you could be any more beautiful," he expressed.

Felicity put her quesadilla down and playfully slapped his upper arm, "You're such a flatter. It's your wedding night, you're guaranteed to be laid tonight."

"It is our wedding night Felicity," Oliver agreed, "You know I don't say these things to get you into bed."

"I do. The photographer has pictures of me in the dress before the ring incident. You can see those. I was thinking of wearing the dress for our first anniversary."

"I'll wait to see you in it in a year then," he said. He reached across the desk to a square box on the side. "I got you a wedding gift," he said handing the box to Felicity.

Felicity opened the box to find a sparkling diamond necklace.

"Oh my god Oliver it's beautiful!" Felicity exclaimed.

Oliver took the necklace out of the box and placed it around her neck.

"It's still not as beautiful as you," he said sincerely.

Felicity reached into her dress and pulled out her gift to Oliver. It was a laminated pocket size version of her vows to Oliver. She wanted him to put it in his wallet so he would always have a reminder of the promises she made to him.

"Wow this gift is better than the 10 million I spent for that necklace," Oliver said reaching for his wallet that was on the table.

"You spent 10 million on this necklace?" Felicity ask horrified her hands flying to the piece of jewellery around her neck while Oliver was busy sliding the vows next to the picture of her in his wallet.

"It was a bonus on my trust fund. My dad had some clause about a bonus being paid if I settled down and married. He then told me I had to spend the bonus on a wedding gift for you," Oliver said. "It's supposed to be your nest egg."

"I'm sure you didn't have to spend the whole bonus," Felicity replied still in shock.

"I didn't," Oliver assured her. "I saved a good portion for our future."

Felicity spotted Oliver's phone on the table and grabbed it. She was curious to see what the media was reporting. They had told the guests not to post any pictures on social media. She unlocked his phone and pulled up the gossip sites from Starling City.

There were several threads speculating that they had a massive row and the wedding was called off. Many pictures of her leaving the hotel were plastered across the site and many 'experts' pointed to that fact that she wasn't wearing a wedding dress and her bridal party was not with her as evidence.

"They're like rabid dogs," Oliver commented as he watched her scroll through the site.

"Then let's throw them a bone," Felicity said with a wicked gleam in her eye.

She leaned close to his face and took a selfie of them from the neck up, making sure to get the necklace in the shot. She then posted it on QC's social media account with the hashtag #happilymarried.

It didn't take long for the picture to start trending and many people started offering them congratulations. Thea even commented that is was the most beautiful ceremony she had ever witnessed.

"We are husband and wife now," Felicity mused as she munched on the last quesadilla.

"I should probably warn you there is another video today," Oliver said guiltily.

"From my mom?" Felicity asked.

"Yeap, she really wanted to be present at all the major events in your life," he explained to her.

"How many videos are we talking about?" Felicity asked getting the impression that there were more than two.

"Counting the one you saw already, ten in total," Oliver responded.

"Ten!" Felicity exclaimed astonished, "Why so many?"

"There's one for pregnancy, labour, breast feeding, sex after birth…" Oliver explained listing the videos off.

"She spoke about all that?" Felicity asked horrified.

"In graphic detail. I'm scared for life," Oliver joked.

"You were there when she filmed it?" Felicity asked surprised.

"I filmed her!"

"Oh, I thought she just set the camera up on a desk and spoke to it," Felicity replied dumbly.

"She did that the first time but she never pressed record. After that she had me do it for her," Oliver explained with a fond smile.

Felicity laughed. That sounded like her mom. There were so many times where her mother typed out a message to her on her phone and didn't press send.

"This was our first meal as husband and wife," Felicity commented.

"First snack," Oliver corrected her, "Our first meal will be later but if you want another first we could enjoy a quickie."

"No, we better get out of here quickly before Tommy tells the entire wedding we're having sex in here," Felicity told her husband getting off his lap.

"He probably already said that," Oliver admitted standing up and holding out his hand for her, "Are you ready Mrs Queen?"

"To start our future Mr. Smoak? Absolutely!"

**Dec-7**

The guests were all seated with champagne flutes when they entered the restaurant. Tommy, the master of ceremonies, was standing patiently at the podium. When he noticed them he got everyone's attention.

"I would like everyone to stand and welcome Mr. and Mrs. Queen!" he said into the microphone.

The guests all stood and clapped as they made their way to the head table. Sara and Iris both whistled loudly. Once they were seated a waiter appeared with two flutes of champagne for them. The photographer started taking pictures and Felicity realised she had been so focused on Oliver she hadn't even noticed her during the ceremony. Everyone was given a moment to settle into their seats before Tommy started the speeches.

"Welcome everyone. I should inform you that once upon a time there was a programme for this wedding but I took one look at it and threw it out the window. Tommy Merlyn does not do scripted," he said with a light chuckle. The audience followed with laughter.

"Since I know Ollie is dying for us to get to the good part, we're going to start with the first speaker, who though not physically here with us thought ahead to ensure she would be here for this day. Without much ado, I give you the bride's mother, the amazing Donna Smoak," Tommy said pointing to the projector screen.

The lights dimmed and Donna's face appeared. Unlike the other video Donna's hair was done, and her make-up was flawless. Felicity could see the peach spaghetti straps of Donna's dress and she knew which dress her mother was wearing. The last time she saw her mother in it they were going out to dinner. Oliver had taken her out all day and when they finally reappeared she thought her mother was way over dressed for dinner. Now she knew what they were really doing and why her mother had dressed so formally.

"Hello everyone, I'm Felicity's mother. I very much want to be there today but fate had something else in store for me so I decided to take advantage of Felicity's much loved technology to ensure I have a presence. My baby girl built her first computer at age seven. Can you image that? I have no idea how it works but she does. I can't tell you the amount of times I tripped over a spare computer part on the ground. We had endless fights. When I thought Felicity would be interested in boys she was talking about some super computer. She came home one day swearing she would never fall in love and never get married."

Felicity ducked her head into Oliver chest embarrassed and she felt his chest vibrate as he laughed.

"I have some old videos of Felicity learning to walk," Donna said as the video cut from her to a grainy video of a toddler dressed only in a diaper with two brown pigtails. Donna's voice then started talking while the video continued to play.

"She was supposed to be learning to walk but was more interested in taking apart the phone, my hairdryer and any other thing she could get her hands on," Donna said.

The video changed to Felicity sitting in the middle of what was once a blow dryer.

Oliver leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You were such a cute baby. I hope our kids are that cute."

Felicity blushed. Eventually they were going to have a serious conversation about kids. They knew they wanted them but not yet.

The screen switched back to Donna, "Did you enjoy that trip down memory lane Felicity?"

"No," Felicity replied shaking her head emphatically.

"Great," Donna said with a large smile. It was as if she was there in the room with them. "I'm sure everyone enjoyed seeing what a wonderful toddler you were. Let's move on to your teenage years," Donna threatened lightly.

"NO!" Felicity screamed.

"Relax, I'm just teasing you," Donna said with a smile that soon disappeared and was replaced by her mother's serious face. "Felicity, wherever I am, know that I'm extremely happy today," a glass appeared in Donna's hand with a sparkling liquid in it, "I would like to raise the first toast to the happy couple, congratulations," Donna raised her hand further in the air and then knocked back the whole glass of liquid. Their guests did similarly but with a small sip from their glasses.

"One final word to my son-in-law, you hurt my precious baby and I'll haunt your ass!"

The screen faded to black and Tommy stepped up to the podium.

"Wow Ollie, I always knew you had your hands fill with Felicity but you also have to be careful not to piss off a spirit. I certainly will not be helping you if you end up with a poltergeist problem," Tommy joked and the guests laughed at the joke though Moira sent Tommy a warning look. "Donna Smoak sure knows how to toast," Tommy said waving his empty champagne glass in the air for a waiter to refill it.

Oliver leaned over again, "We should have put something on the table that we could use to throw at him when he makes stupid comments."

"You can use my shoe," Felicity jokingly offered.

When the laughter died down Tommy continued, "The next person that wishes to speak is Bob."

Bob stood from his table and walked to the podium. He pulled out a piece of paper. "Good afternoon everyone, the first thing my daughter told me to do was move a toast to the bride and groom because I'll probably forget so I better do it now except I left my drink at the table," he admitted and the room laughed. His grandson brought him his glass. Once he had the glass he lifted it into the air, "To Felicity & Oliver!" the room followed suit.

"I knew Felicity first. She came every night to pick Donna up from work. She perched herself on the bar with a glass of red wine while she waited for the bar to close. This was how Felicity met Oliver. I used to watch them interact from the kitchen. It was so adorable the way they would glance at one another when the other wasn't looking. Felicity your mom would be thrilled that the two of you married. She wanted to personalise her message and say Oliver's name but I advised her against it. It turned out your marriage was yet another thing she was right about. You weren't even dating at the time but she saw a connection between you two and she knew what it would grow into. We all saw it eventually and I can tell you that everyone at the bar is thrilled that you both took this next step but the journey isn't over. You're still at the beginning. You have a long way to go. There will be many obstacles but once you face them together and trust each other you will overcome them. Congratulations," Bob said ending.

He started to walk towards his table but then he turned around and walked up to the head table. He leaned over the table, "And just to reinforce what Donna said at the end of her speech Oliver, I own a shotgun," he reminded the groom quietly.

"Wow," Tommy said with an impressed expression, "Some salient marriage advice. As a married man myself I can second that."

"Tommy you've been married for one month and you probably spent most of that on the couch!" Oliver retorted loudly and much of the room broke into laughter.

"Technically, Laurel and I have been married for a glorious month and a half and I couldn't possibly have spent it on the couch since we have a baby on the way. You need to catch up buddy," Tommy said with a smug expression.

"Tommy!" Laurel shouted angrily and Tommy's smug expression quickly vanished as he realised he was in the dog house.

"Opps, I wasn't supposed to say that was I?" Tommy asked. Laurel crossed her hands angrily in front of her chest and glared at him.

"Anyway onto the next speaker, Mrs. Queen," Tommy said quickly.

Oliver tensed next to her, "I take it back. We should have had a programme. Giving Tommy free reign was a very bad idea."

"Good afternoon everyone, I would like to thank you for coming. I just wanted to say a quick word. Felicity you are a wonderful person. I couldn't ask for a better daughter-in-law. I want to officially welcome you to the Queen Family. I look forward to watching the two of you continue to grow as a couple and the day you make Robert and I grandparents but not as quickly as Tommy. This isn't a race," she said throwing shade at Tommy. She raised her glass, "To the happy couple, may their marriage last to the end of their lives."

A nervous looking Tommy stepped up to the podium. "We're at the best part of the night, The Best Man's Speech! I've been looking forward to this since Ollie told me he was getting married. Ollie and I have been friends since before we were born. That's a long time. I've seen Oliver do some pretty dumb shit like pee on a cop car, run naked through a snow storm, date four girls at the same time, drop out of college four times,…."

As the list continued Felicity felt Oliver's hand land on her thigh and then smoothly move along to her knee and then down her calf to her ankle. He slipped her shoe off.

"You know I was joking right?" Felicity asked.

"He brought this on himself. If I wanted to hear everything I ever did wrong I would have asked my parents," Oliver said.

"He's getting to his point," Felicity said placing her hand on his to stop him.

"But the point of all of this is Ollie's a good guy. Felicity couldn't ask for a better man and if she did Oliver is so in love with her he would immediately set about trying to fix what was wrong with him. Growing up I always thought that the day Oliver got married would be the day that I lost my best friend but I was wrong. Today I gained another best friend in Felicity."

There was a chorus of awes around the room and Felicity herself was smiling wide.

"Welcome to our messed up family!" Tommy said.

"Tommy!" exclaimed Moira, Malcolm and Laurel.

"Opps, guess I shouldn't have said that either," he joked and the room laughed at him. "Oh well, let me get my toast over with," he said raising his glass, "To my best friends! May you stay together forever because I won't know who to pick in the divorce."

Before Felicity could stop him, Oliver threw the shoe straight at the back of Tommy's head.

"Ow!" he cried. "What was that for?"

Oliver stood and walked over to the podium, "That was for mentioning divorce at my _**wedding**_!"

"It was a joke," Tommy crowed.

"A joke that was in very poor taste Tommy," Moira said supporting her son.

Oliver rolled his eyes and stood at the podium, a large smile settled on his handsome face, "On behalf of my wife and I," he started and everyone cheered, "We would like to thank you for coming and sharing this day with us. Like Tommy I've been looking forward to this day since Felicity said yes. That's almost one year. I can tell you the wait was more than worth it. I would like to thank all of the speakers that came before me. Donna wherever you are, you don't need to worry about haunting me. Thank you for giving me the best wife in the world. She's so wonderful, I didn't have to get married in a penguin suit!" he boasted. "For those of you wondering about our unusual wedding clothes, that dress Felicity is wearing is the dress she wore to the bar the first day we met. I was in a dress pants and shirt much like this as well," he explained.

There were several awes around the room.

"Since Tommy forgot to do this, I'll move a toast to the beautiful bridesmaids though not as lovely as my wife, thanks for supporting us," he said. "I would also like to thank everyone else that made this day possible. I've been imaging it for a year and it's exceeded my expectations. Felicity I'm positively ecstatic to finally be married to you and I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with you. I love you," Oliver said.

**Dec-8**

Dinner was served next. The food was exquisite and Felicity enjoyed every mouthful. From her seat she had a pretty good view of all the guests. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Thea was seated with her parents, Roy, Diggle, Lyla, Barry and Iris. She and Roy had officially decided to become a couple again this week and this was their first event as boyfriend and girlfriend. Roy had successfully finished his first semester at school, passing all of his classes. Tommy was behaving like a proud papa, praising Roy for his success but he still had a long way to go. She didn't know what the future held for Thea and Roy but it was great to know that they would have the support of the family in all of their endeavours.

Dinner finished and it was time to open the dance floor. Felicity having seen the movie _The Wedding Planner_ , decided she wasn't going with any modern song for her first dance with Oliver. Instead she went with a classical waltz, _Blue Danube_ by Johann Strauss II. Moira made Oliver take ballroom dance classes as a teenager and Felicity learned from dancers in the casino where her mother worked when she was young.

Felicity stepped up to Oliver and placed her hand in his. Oliver placed his hand just below her shoulder blade on her back. The first notes started to play and Oliver led her across the floor. They easily glided across the room from side to side, using all of the open space. It was just the two of them in their own little world. It would have been wonderful if she had her wedding dress on but she had to settle for her current dress.

After their dance was complete everyone was invited onto the dance floor. They skipped the usual father-daughter and mother-son dance for obvious reasons. Oliver would dance with his mother later on. They moved around the room greeting their guests at all the tables. The photographer taking the obligatory pictures. Once they were finished making the rounds it was time to cut the cake. Oliver placed his hand over hers on the knife as she cut a small square for them. They then fed each other. The cake was soft and it complemented the marzipan perfectly. She made a mental note to write a good review on the website.

Soon it was time to throw the bouquet. All the single ladies were lining up to catch it with most notably Susie standing in front. Oliver called his sister out of the group but she ignored him. Felicity threw the bouquet and it landed in Sara's hands. Sara stared at it surprised but when other ladies tried to snatch it out of her hands, she held onto it firmly. Sara guarded the bouquet for the rest of the night with Nyssa. Next was supposed to be the garter toss but Felicity said she wasn't wearing one.

They remained at the reception for another hour before Oliver decided it was time for them to go back to their hotel. Two of the shuttles had already taken the older guests back to the strip. They had a limo waiting but Oliver took one look at the Porsche and made a beeline to it.

"Forget the limo, let's take the Porsche," he declared. "My parents can go back in the limo."

"I agree," Felicity said sliding into the passenger seat.

Oliver started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot back onto the main road to Las Vegas.

"Oliver," she said.

"Yes?" he answered his eyes drifting over to her briefly.

"I lied, I am wearing a garter," she said with a teasing smile.

His only response was to floor the accelerator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you have it, the wedding! I will be posting a short epilogue for this story.
> 
> For those eagle-eyed fans, yes I was lazy and I ripped Oliver's vows from episode 4x16 and Felicity's from her 3x20 confession.


	14. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the epilogue. When I started writing the epilogue I had no intention of it turning out like this but once the pen hit the paper something else entirely happened. It is much longer than I intended. It's actually like a whole new chapter with new plot which isn't what an epilogue should be! The Muse however refuses to budge so I'm stuck with this 'epilogue' below. I also cried writing this but the tears weren't for Olicity.

The honeymoon had been the most amazing experience of Felicity's life. It was just the two of them enjoying each other's company and enjoying life. They did all sorts of romantic things, like watch the sunrise and sunset together, walk on the beach in the moonlight, kiss in the rain, and spend the first three days in bed. Felicity couldn't imagine a better honeymoon.

They returned in time to celebrate Hannukah and Christmas with the family. There were lots of teasing comments about the honeymoon and babies but Felicity ignored it. Oliver kept up the Hannukah tradition of adding to her charm bracelet and he got her a little silver bungalow which was representational of the bungalow they had spent their honeymoon in.

They spent New Year's at the Merlyn residence excitedly talking about the baby Merlyn to come. She returned to work on January 2nd, extremely pleased to discover that the Applied Sciences Building was still standing, Curtis had not burnt it down in her absence and all of their projects were on track. There were even three new project proposals waiting for her review and comments. Barbara had done a fantastic job in her absence.

It was a bit difficult at first to readjust to going back to work. As much as she loved the work that she did, she missed being able to see Oliver at any time she pleased. Sometimes she would call Oliver's assistant to get an idea of when would be a good time for her to randomly pop by to see her husband. She figured by the middle of January she had regained the sense of balance that she had before.

* * *

The end of January brought Moira's ball at Starling Grand Hotel in their honour. Felicity knew it was going to be torture. Oliver was away the entire week leading up to the ball. Robert had sent him to Russia to meet with their Russian investors and Felicity missed him plenty. He would be returning the day of the ball and going straight to the Manor to get ready. Felicity wouldn't be getting ready at the Manor. Moira had a ball gown made for her by a promising local designer and she had to get ready in a suite at the hotel.

The gown looked absolutely gorgeous but it made contact with people extremely difficult. It was the perfect Disney Princess dress, a deep green dress with a sweetheart neckline, fitted bodice with lace overlay and then a wide puffed out skirt that circled around her. The diameter of the dress at the base was six feet. There was no doubt how beautiful she looked standing in the dress but that was all she could do in the dress, stand! She knew Moira had disapproved of her final dress option at the wedding and this dress was Moira's way of getting Felicity into a grand wedding dress but it backfired on her.

Felicity dress kept many people from getting close to her and conversing with her. Even Oliver voiced his frustration as he had to fight with the dress to get close to her. Eventually Robert guided Oliver away to handle all the schmoozing with the investors and Felicity found a nice spot between the bar and a potted plant to stand alone. The length of the dress allowed her to kick off her heels without anyone noticing. The one good thing was that being so close to the bar meant she had an uninterrupted flow of wine.

About an hour into the soiree Thea and Roy made their way over to her.

"Having fun?" Thea asked.

"A lot better than if I was at Oliver's side," she said nodding over to where he was on the other side of the room surrounded by a bunch of older men.

"Do you know any of these people?" Thea asked curiously.

"I actually do know most of these people," Felicity answered honestly. "I don't know what that says about me though."

"It says you're a true Queen," Thea replied with a smile and a sip of her drink.

Felicity nodded and continued staring at the people in the room. She had about two more hours to go before they all left and she could take this dress off.

"So what's up with you and Tommy? You keep looking at him like every ten seconds," Thea asked.

Felicity cringed at the question.

"Thea!" Roy protested.

"What I didn't mean it in a romantic sense more a mother goose keeping a close eye on her gosling," Thea explained.

"He's had a tough day," Felicity replied cryptically.

She glanced at Roy and he looked away unable to meet her eyes. Thea noticed.

"Something's going on," Thea said crossing her arms over her black dress. "And don't tell me it's nothing."

"I wasn't going to say it's nothing just that you will find out later but if you could go and sit next to Tommy by the bar and keep him from inhaling his fifth drink of the night, I would be very grateful," Felicity indicated to her.

"Fifth drink! This show has only been going for an hour," Thea said surprised.

Felicity nodded. "And it would be much appreciated if you could try to sober him up too. Stuff some of those crab cakes in him. He loves crab cakes," Felicity tacked on as Thea squared her shoulders to go and deal with the young Merlyn seated at the bar.

"Ok, I'll go and slow him down and try to keep him out of trouble but I can't promise anything regarding sobering him up," Thea said.

"Anything you can do to help, is fine," Felicity said.

She watched Thea and Roy start talking to Tommy and let out a relieved sigh when he invited them to sit on either side of him at the bar. They were in for one hell of a night.

* * *

Shortly before the ball finished Felicity asked Thea to help her take off the dress so she could change into a normal dress that would allow her to share a limo with everyone on the way home. When she returned to the ballroom Oliver latched on to her immediately, his arm encircling her waist and pulling him into his side where she belonged. They saw the last of the guests off before Digg bought the limo around. Felicity had arranged for one limo to take everyone home.

A moderately drunk Tommy entered the limo first and plastered himself by the opposite door, Felicity went next, then Oliver and Thea. Roy got stuck on the other side with Robert and Moira as well as Malcolm who she had invited to join them.

"It's pretty crowded in here?" Thea observed expecting someone to explain to her why they were all in one limo.

Felicity was going to explain but Malcolm cut her off to ask his own question.

"Felicity, you strongly urged me to join you in this limo to discuss a matter of great concern to me. I assume it has to do with why my son plastered himself at the bar and Laurel never turned up," Malcolm said stingily.

She felt Tommy stiffen next to her.

"Laurel and I are no longer together dad," Tommy said bitterly refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

"What!" Oliver exclaimed surprised. Felicity squeezed his hand in comfort.

"No Tommy that can't be possible," Thea said in disbelief.

Robert sighed heavily, "What happened Tommy?" he asked. The fatherly concern very present in his voice.

Tommy was silent for a while as everyone waited for an answer. Felicity had spent all afternoon listing all the reasons why he needed to tell them today.

"Three days ago Laurel miscarried. She blamed me for it. Said I wasn't as good a husband as Oliver was. That I wasn't supportive enough that I never said the right things like him. She said it was a mistake to marry me. She should never have settled for me. She should have pursued the love of her life instead. She said she should have been married to Oliver and that it should have been his baby and then she would still have it because he would have taken care of her properly," Tommy said angrily as tears rolled down his cheek. He was still staring out the window.

Even though Felicity knew the whole story she still couldn't help the tear that made its way down her own cheek. She sympathised strongly with Tommy. In one night he had lost his baby and his wife. The grief must be unbearable. To make matters worse, the divorce papers came to Verdant today. Roy happened to be there and called her right away when Tommy broke down in his office.

Oliver was at a loss for words besides her and she understood why. How do you comfort your best friend after what Laurel said?

"Tommy, I think you need to ignore everything Laurel said. She's in pain like you and she was just lashing out. It can't be easy to lose a child," Thea reasoned.

"No," Tommy said. "She meant it. She always made subtle comments about the way Oliver treated Felicity and the way I treated her. I know what she said was true."

"I'm sorry Tommy this is my fault," Moira said looking genuinely guilty. Felicity certainly didn't expect that admission.

It was the first time Tommy looked away from the window.

"It's not your fault," he said looking at her with red puffy eyes.

"It is. When laurel was young, I encouraged the idea of marrying Oliver. I encouraged delusions of what being Mrs. Queen would be like. She has this fantasy in her head that no man, not even Oliver, can satisfy. At the time I was hoping it would keep them together and that when she grew up she would realise that the dreams I gave her were just that dreams, not achievable in real life, but it looks like I was wrong. I can talk to Laurel. I'm sure she's confusing her grief over the baby with the fantasy in her head," Moira said.

"No it _**is**_ over. I should have just signed the stupid divorce papers that came this afternoon but Felicity wouldn't let me," Tommy said bitterly throwing a glare at his best friend.

She felt Oliver tense besides her at the look Tommy was giving her but she squeezed his hand to remind him that it was ok. Tommy was just upset.

"Felicity is right," Malcolm said defending her actions.

"You never sign a legal document when you're emotionally upset and you never sign without letting your legal team look it over first," Robert said softly to Tommy.

"Where is the document?" Malcolm asked.

"I have it. I assumed you would want to read it and have your legal team review it," Felicity explained.

"Yes, I will handle the legal matters. I assume Tommy's been staying with you," Malcolm said.

"Yes," Felicity answered. He had turned up on her doorstep at 2:00am three days ago. It was the worst she had ever seen him and she held him the entire night while he cried. He didn't explain to her what happened until the following night but she knew it had to be bad. She had concluded that whatever happened between him and Laurel that it would be permanently over this time. She wished Oliver had been there to talk to him but he wasn't and she knew if she called him and told him it wouldn't help. He needed to hear it from Tommy. She wasn't going to tell anyone but the appearance of the divorce papers changed her plans. She had to act in Tommy's best interests. His father needed to get the papers and the family needed to know because she was fairly sure the media was going to catch wind of what was happening fairly soon.

"He's welcomed to stay as long as he likes," Oliver reinforced without missing a beat.

They were soon at the loft and the minute Thea stepped out of the limo a reporter appeared from a behind a potted plant at the entrance and started asking questions about Tommy Merlyn. Digg promptly removed the reporter and they were all able to make their way inside without photographs being taken.

* * *

Malcolm, Robert and Oliver were pouring over the divorce papers while Thea and Moira doted on Tommy. Roy was helping Felicity in the kitchen as she warmed up some appetizers and prepared a hangover concoction for Tommy. From the face Malcolm was making he was less than thrilled with the requests in the divorce papers. Felicity had briefly scanned through the documents and she was fairly sure some of Laurel's demands were in violation of the prenup she had agreed to.

"You think he's going to be ok?" Felicity asked Roy as she glanced over at Tommy. Thea had actually gotten him to smile.

"Of course. How can he not be when he has so many people taking care of him," Roy answered. She knew Roy had no one home to support him.

"Hangover prevention cocktail is ready, who needs one?" Felicity asked and several hands went up in the air. Felicity arched an eyebrow because she was fairly sure that only Tommy needed one. It was a good thing this recipe was formulated for at least five servings.

Moira arrived to collect the drink for Tommy and Thea.

"Have you spoken to Laurel," Moira asked her quietly.

"No, but Quentin and Dinah called Sara home. Sara told me her sister is an absolute mess. One moment she's sad and miserable and the next she's cheery and happy. They're concerned for her mental health. Quentin's having a psychiatrist come by to evaluate her. She needs help. The miscarriage broke something inside of her," Felicity told Moira.

"I'll talk to Quentin discretely. Laurel may be the one who broke Tommy's heart but she was once very important to us. I had a hand in shaping who she is today. It would be remiss of me not to offer some sort of help, even if it is just financial," Moira said picking up the glasses and moving over to the couch.

* * *

After they finished reviewing the papers, Oliver hustled everyone but Tommy out of the apartment. They helped Tommy up to his room, Felicity took off his shoes and left Oliver to do the rest to get him ready for bed. Felicity showered while she waited for Oliver to return. She exited the bathroom to find Oliver staring worriedly at the ceiling.

"Talk to me Oliver," Felicity encouraged as she crawled onto the bed. She settled her head on his chest and she relished in the smell of his cologne.

"Three months, Felicity. Tommy's been married for three months and he's getting a divorce. What does that mean for us?" he asked fearfully.

"Oh Oliver," Felicity said raising her head off of his chest and taking his face in her hands. "I meant my vows Oliver. I will fight for us. We are not Tommy and Laurel. Everyone in our family can confirm that. We know there will be obstacles but we will overcome them baby. I'm in this for the long run."

Oliver nodded, "About what Tommy said about Laurel," he said addressing something that was bugging him.

"I'm not the slightest bit threatened. Whatever unrequited feelings Laurel has, they're hers to deal with not mine. My only concern is us. I know you Oliver and I know what we have and I know how you feel about what we have," Felicity stated fiercely.

"You know I was looking forward to sex tonight but after that news," Oliver said trailing off.

She linked her hands through his, "I know baby. I know," she reassured him. "It's also ok if you spend a little bit more time with Tommy over the next few days instead of me. I understand."

Oliver laughed, "You are the best wife on the planet but I'm not even sure I'll get to spend that much time with him. Thea has booked a significant portion of his weekend time for therapeutic shopping, Roy is helping him with plans to renovate the club, Dad is taking him golfing, Mom is taking him on some trip she has coming up and his own father is also taking him on some private retreat just for the two of them to celebrate his birthday. The only time I think I'll get with Tommy is at nights."

Felicity smiled mischievously, "That's always been the best time for the two of you."

"Maybe, but that's in the past. My nights are 100% dedicated to you," he said with a charming smile.

"I love you Mr. Smoak."

"I love you Mrs. Queen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we have it. The end of this story. Thanks to everyone that reviewed.
> 
> There were a couple of questions about writing a third part called the Baby Challenge but I think if I continue this, I want to write Tommy's point of view. I think it would be much more interesting to write about him going through his divorce and recovering. It would also be a third party view of the first year of the Olicity marriage.

**Author's Note:**

> I have the next six chapters ready to post. My aim is to post every day except Mondays until the end of the story which should take me to the day that Arrow starts back. So look out for the next chapter tomorrow!


End file.
